A new Afghan Islamic Council set up by the Supreme Court has called on the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai to enforce Islamic laws more strictly.
Okay. I'm ready to leave. How 'bout you?
Karzai's government has come under fire from some Islamic groups for failing to allow them to tell other people what do do maintain Islamic values and traditions. The council met for the first time this week and called for women to observe an Islamic dress code, and for the government to punish Muslims for the consumption and sale of alcohol and narcotics, as well as adultery and sodomy. But, unlike the hardline Taliban, the Council recommended women continue to have the right to education and to take part in government.
Ain't that nice of them?
"At the meeting the Ulema (scholars) issued a resolution stressing on the need for the implementation of Islamic orders," said Deputy Chief Justice Fazl Ahmad Manawi. "Fornicators, sodomists, alcohol and drugs consumers will have to be punished. These are not only the demands of the ulema, but also the Afghan Muslim nation."
"And don't let us catch any of you bastards smiling, either!"
The council, called by the country's Chief Justice Mawlavi Fazl Hadi Shinwari, consists of 70 elite scholars representing Afghanistan's 32 provinces and will meet once a month, Manawi told Reuters. He said the council had the backing of President Karzai and said he did not expect any opposition to its proposals.
"If there is, we'll just cut their heads off!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 11:26 am ||
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Can't wait to hear some lefty female professor of sociology tell us that we need to understand that all cultures are equally valid, and all morally relative. To think less of the Arab/muslim honor/shame culture is not just wrong, but bad. The response should be to tell her to stfu, get her burqa back on and get thee three paces back of our asses. Oh and make us lunch. Think that would change her thinking? These Ulemas should be flayed as the prehistoric crap they are by Karzai. Think they have jobs? Do anything productive for Afghan society?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 12:30 Comments ||
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These guys must have a chain on their collective legs holding them back in the 8th century. Afghanistan, in order to become a healthy society, will literally have to be dragged kicking and screaming forward to the 21st century. In some ways it is all about oiiiiillll. Oil money we give to and spent by these Islamic nutcases finances our own destruction. So we have to change them or get rid of the money/oil/terror exchange or both. And in many parts of Iraq, we have the same situation with these mouthy mullahs screaming jihad and issuing fatwas by the firkin, which keeps their own larders well stocked and them comfortable.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/03/2003 14:42 Comments ||
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Use your heads! The "faith based" Bush government has done absolutely nothing to promote liberal interpretations of shariah in Afghanistan. He insisted on armistice arrangements with the Islamofascists, when the Northern Alliance was prepared to annihilate these wild animals. In the Pashto area of Afghanistan, Karzai's sovereignty doesn't exist outside of his shoes. Blame the US President who doesn't believe in separation of church and state.
The Afghanistan mission will fail unless the fundamentalists are identified as Islamofascists, and put down with extreme force.
#4
I see it differently, and I think Bush does, too, and it has nothing to do with being "faith-based." It was in our interest to throw the Talibs out of Afghanistan, and it was coincidentally in the interests of the Afghans. It was in our interest and theirs to give them the opportunity to become a modern, functioning state. But we can't change Afghanistan from being one of the world's most backward states. That's their culture, and it's not susceptible to being changed by us infidels overnight. It's tough luck that their backwardness is the product of having a mullah on every street corner, even while they don't have any streets.
So they had the opportunity, and they haven't grabbed at it. Their warlord culture's kept the central government bottled up in Kabul, and rather than lining up for aid and assistance they've seen fit to rob and loot the aiders and assisters. That's not our fault. You know what they say about leading horses to water and the amount they actually consume.
If I was in charge, I'd be negotiating individual alliances with Dostum and Ismail Khan, plus any other warlords who are secure in control of their territories and will give us what we want. I'd write the Karzai government off as a bad investment, wait until the Pashtuns run him out of town or kill him, and then do my best to isolate the follow-on regime. If it became necessary to clobber it again when the Arabs came back to set up shop at the same old stand, there wouldn't be any loya jirga nonsense this time. It'd be a military government and "yes, sir" and "no, sir" or the boneyard.
That's not to say there's no hope for them at all. Assuming Karzai and company hang in there long enough, something fairly stable could come down the road. It'll still be primitively Islamic, of course. But if the rest of the Islamic world changes around them, they might find themselves drawn into something resembling a modern state - "modern" in this case being post-17th century or later. The key to Islamism isn't in Afghanistan; it's in Pakistan and Soddy Arabia, with the larger portion being in Arabia because that's where the money is. That's why Afghanistan will remain a holding action in this game.
But I'm still sorry they blew their chance. Most of us were hoping they wouldn't, even while expecting they would. Perhaps if Massoud had lived, they wouldn't have.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2003 16:07 Comments ||
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#5
Incidentally I found this article from a few months back an interesting take on why the warlords really can't do much to help us in a civilian sense (including disarm even if they wanted to).
#6
puleeze fred--ismail khan is the worst--a true islamist--dostrum you can buy with guns, booze and moola but the other dude. no way--he's got a special pipeline to allah-----only true solution is bismakian/garibaldian/ataturkian--one strongman/ststesman with a secular bent ripping all of them new assholes until some sort of unity/national purpose prevails--extremely iffy--our role should be to grase the wheels but if the old rust comes back then it is to make sure our enemies don't take hold and multiply in this rancid petrie dish of a country
Moving to quell an embarrassing scandal, Saudi Arabian authorities recently detained for questioning one of their own diplomats amid suspicions that he may have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars out of official Saudi accounts to Al Qaeda operatives in Europe. The unfolding probe into the activities of Muhammad J. Fakihi, who until recently served as acting chief of the Islamic Affairs section of the Saudi Embassy in Berlin, is being watched closely in Washington as a test of how aggressively the Saudi government is willing to root out Osama bin Laden loyalists within its own ranks.
I'd guess Muhammad J. is toast. The lights are on, so it's time to scurry and hope they go out again soon...
Interrogated by Saudi investigators, Fakihi has acknowledged he sympathized with bin Laden and that he steered embassy funds to charities and mosques suggested by Qaeda loyalists. âHe confessed that he was told by close friends of [bin Laden] where to give the money,â says one Saudi source familiar with the probe. Another U.S. source familiar with the investigation said Fakihi was âmore than just a sympathizer of bin Laden. He was organizationally involvedâ with bin Ladenâs network.
'Nother words, he was a player, not just applauding from the audience...
Officials say Saudi authorities are also reviewing some $800,000 in funds that were doled out by the Islamic Affairs department after Fakihi assumed control more than two years ago. Officials are trying to determine whether some of those funds may have wound up financing terrorist activities. But a Saudi official told NEWSWEEK that neither German nor U.S. officials had turned over any incriminating evidence against Fakihi, and so far no improprieties have been found.
"No, no! Certainly not! The money was budgeted to be spent on good, Islamist causes. Who's to say it wouldn't have gone to the same recipients even without the terrorists direction?"
Concerns about Fakihi first surfaced late last year when German investigators disclosed that Fakihiâs business card had been found in the Hamburg apartment of a Moroccan student, Mounir el-Motassadeq, who has since been convicted of aiding and abetting the 9-11 attacks. El-Motassadeq had traveled to a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the spring of 2000 and had extensive dealings with members of the Hamburg cell. (He managed one 9-11 hijackerâs bank account and was a witness to the bizarre will signed by hijacker leader Muhammad Atta.) But the Saudi Embassy in Germany never responded to a formal request from prosecutors to explain the presence of the business card or an alleged meeting between Fakihi and el-Motassadeq in Berlin shortly before the terroristâs arrest in November 2001.
"'Splain yourself, Abdullah!"
"Mahmoud, did you hear something?"
"No, Effendi! I heard nothing!"
The case took a new twist when German police turned up evidence that Fakihi had recently met at a Berlin mosque with the alleged ringleader of another Qaeda cell. Four days after German officials again confronted the Saudi Embassy about him in March, Fakihi flew back to Saudi Arabia, where he was detained for questioning.
Welcome home, Mohammad J. You're under arrest!"
The inquiry continues, and one key issue, sources say, is whether other government officialsâespecially within the Ministry of Islamic Affairsâwere aware of his activities. âThis is a serious matter,â says one Bush administration official.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 03:43 pm ||
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I wouldn't wanna be Mo J in this case, as it's easier to have him executed and claim that's the end of the investigation - all leads exhausted. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, tho'
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 18:09 Comments ||
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I suspect MJF will disappear from the view of prying Western eyes soon. His fate will be instructive. If he is executed or goes to jail for a very long time, then the Saudis were merely too lazy and corrupt to audit their accounts. But if he comes home to a slap on the wrist, then the Soddies and Al Qaeda are much more closely linked than any official in the West will currently admit. If Hezbollah is a creature of the Mullahs and Syrians, then Al Qaeda is a creature of the Soddies. God, this war is going to last a long time.
Five people were arrested under the terrorism act in connection with a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this week, police said today. Two men and two women were arrested in Derbyshire and a woman was held in Nottinghamshire, a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. She said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism branch, working with local officers, arrested five people in a series of operations in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as part of ongoing inquiries being carried out following a terrorist incident in Tel Aviv on Wednesday." All five were arrested yesterday under the Terrorism Act 2000 which relates to those suspected of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Wonder if they were Muhajiroun members?
They were all being taken into custody at central London police stations. Police were searching addresses in the area. No weapons or any explosive devices are believed to have been found. The arrests follow a joint British and Israeli security services operation to establish how a British Muslim became a suicide bomber. Israeli police claim Assif Mohammed Hanif, 21, of Hounslow, west London, detonated a device in the doorway of Mike's Place, a bar in Tel Aviv, in the early hours of Wednesday, killing three other people. Authorities are still hunting for his 27-year-old accomplice, Omar Khan Sharif, from Derby, who is alleged to have fled the scene of the bombing after his device failed to detonate.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:45 am ||
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Germany reacted with dismay yesterday to America's decision not to return the 17,000-strong 1st Armoured Division to Germany, accelerating plans to relocate its troops to eastern Europe. Roland Koch, the premier of Hesse state, where 3,700 of the 70,000 US soldiers in Germany are stationed, said the American decision would lead to the loss of 250 jobs and have a huge impact on shops and other businesses. Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has repeatedly shrugged off the prospect of a withdrawal of US forces, but officials around Frankfurt and Heidelberg, where troops are stationed, are concerned at the loss of millions of dollars which the soldiers and their families bring in each year.
"It was just business, Mike..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 03:19 pm ||
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Mr Koch is one of the staunchest opponents of Gerhard Schroeder (he criticised him harshly over Iraq) and may be his challenger in the elections of 2006. (I don't like him much but for other reasons.)
#2
TGA: OK, I'll bite. Who do you like in 2006? Angela?
Posted by: Matt ||
05/03/2003 16:18 Comments ||
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I'm sorry to see the folks in Wiesbaden leave, not because I don't think it's right, but because it will make it much more difficult for a bunch of my German friends in that beautiful city. I spent ten years of my life there, and truthfully, I miss it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 17:03 Comments ||
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Matt for the moment, yes. Actually I prefer her in 2003! I would have voted for Schaeuble had he run for office in 1998. Kohl's mistake not to give up earlier. Koch is one of those bland politicians who just go with the flow. Angela had the guts to side with America when it was NOT the easy thing to do. And she is a lot smarter than some people think.
#5
Germany is a lost cause. We should get ready to fight them again, when --not if-- they decide to screw up the rest of Europe again. The latest Balkan wars are entirely the fault of "reunified" Germany. They should have been split into 20 indpendent states and kept down forever. US troops should be replaced with Polish troops there.
#6
TGA: Merkel seems the obvious choice for us Merkins, but I haven't a clue about her domestic policies. By the way, you mentioned in another post that young Germans did not have the same grateful attitude toward the US that older Germans do. I'm sure that's true, but the young Germans I've worked with have all been quite impressive and energetic. (One Ossi I know has some rather strange politics, but I'm willing to make allowances.)
Posted by: Matt ||
05/03/2003 18:19 Comments ||
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Matt, younger Germans are very "americanized" (you'll find that advertising, music, movies etc is very American here), but why should they be that "grateful"? For them even the Cold War is "history", let alone WW2.
East Germans tend to be more sceptical: They don't see Ronald Reagan as the reason the wall came down. They think Perestroika and their own brave peaceful resistance did the trick and they are not entirely wrong, right?
We probably underestimated what reunification after 40 years apart really meant and many Germans are still not sure what the "Berliner Republik" should be about.
#8
TGA, Matt... I'm reminded of a quote I recently saw on Jerry Purnelle's website, a quote that - coming from HIM - shocked me right down to my shoes.
"Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one."
-- John Stuart Mill.
This from one of the great political philosophers of the 19th century. Frightening that we may be reduced to accepting this as an unavoidable consequence of having both irrational "All or NOTHING!" religions and low-cost high-tech weapons of mass destruction on the same planet at the same time.
Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
05/03/2003 18:40 Comments ||
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Ed, the great German poet Hoelderlin once said: "Wo aber Gefahr ist waechst das Rettende auch" (Where there is danger, the things that save us grow as well).
Each century has its challenges. The 20th century could have very well been our last. It could have all ended in 1963 (Cuba crisis) or 1983 (Operation Ryan).
Can you imagine what it felt like to walk through the ruins of German cities? And look at the country today. Did despotism achieve this? No, people found out that democracy and freedom worked for them. At least in West Germany. In East Germany a despotic power kept the country in its grip for 40 years.
So look at the state of West Germany and East Germany in 1989. What do you think worked better?
The United States will not eradicate terrorism with bombs. It will eradicate it by showing people that fanatism will not benefit them, but democracy and tolerance will. In Iraq the US has the chance to demonstrate this... in the center of the Muslim world. But in order to get there, bombs were needed. Yet the hard work is only starting now. It took decades in Germany, it will take decades in Iraq, too. If it works, a positive revolution in the Arab world is a real possibility.
But if the US is happy with a pro-American government and pulls out, not much will be achieved.
Is America ready for this? Or will it go for the "quick fix" and move on?
#10
TGA, for years I believed that ideas, once thought, could not be unthought.
Germany, and Japan, are the full examples that ideas can be unthought and undone. Terrorism can be defeated by bombs. If there is another attack on the United States, or our allies abroad, we will just see what it takes to stamp out terrorism in its various forms.
Make no mistake, it won't involve the definition of "freedom fighters" or UN resolutions.
Posted by: Brian ||
05/03/2003 20:46 Comments ||
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#11
I see this as in great measure an economic problem. A disproportionate share of the Mideast's population consists of unemployed young men whose futures are bleak. Many see their choices as being either Mahmoud the unemployed goatherd or Mahmoud the Sword of Islam. Does the West have a third alternative to offer them (Mahmoud who runs a profitable store down on the corner) or does it not? Iraq is the test for us, and for them. I will say the biggest causes for optimism I have seen are (1) Bush is one stubborn SOB and will stay the course once he sets it and (2) as far as I can tell from the wretched journalism coming out of Iraq, ordinary Iraqis on the whole seem to be behaving pretty rationally in absolutely bizarre circumstances. They want the lights back on, but who wouldn't? We -- and they -- might just pull this off, and if we do the ones looking for jobs will be the terror chieftains.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/03/2003 21:53 Comments ||
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TGA - I do think the Mill quote does have some application. East Germany had the advantage of proximity to the west. They had education and they had civilization when they started. But Spain was a (nominally) fascist state, and Portugal was an authoritarian state until pretty recently. They evolved out of their authoritarianism. And some areas have to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and civilized. Witness Afghanistan, Congo, and - sadly - Zimbabwe.
A bare culture becomes a civilization when its machinery of government becomes strong enough to impose order, enforce a division of labor, and hence produce a betterment of the common good. That first level of civilization is probably most amenable to the top down, heavily structured society a despotism implies. Temples, pyramids, roads, aqueducts, irrigation systems, and all the other things necessary for the attainment of a minimal prosperity can come from that.
I believe what we have in the civilized world today - not just the west, but Japan and Taiwan and increasing areas of China, probably smaller but growing areas of Russia - is a second level of civilization. Something like Maslow's heirarchy of needs, once a civilization attains the point where it doesn't have to worry about the basics of infrastructure, it can turn its attention from the common good to the individual good, to where the individual members of society persue self-actualization rather than breakfast. Government shifts naturally from being the driver to being the referee among independent parties. The reason fascism and communism didn't work was that they were concentrating on the things their societies were on the verge of being able to concentrate on themselves, with the unfocused mass mind better able to attend to the details than the focused but finite groups of planners and party men.
But the world is still full of first-level civilizations, and they do need "parental" assistance. Good parents know how to say "no." In 1950 Burma had approximately the same standard of living as Thailand, and they've historically been evenly-matched rivals. One's still a first-level society, the other's now achieved the second level and it's blossoming. Burma's had dictatorships and planned economies since U Nu, and the Thais muddled along building a more-or-less democracy and a kinda-sorta free society until they took. Had the Brit "parents" remained and said "no" to Burma's succession of planned economies, the two countries might still be peers. Had the Congo had a "parent" other than Belgium, maybe they wouldn't be killing each other with such abandon today.
But maybe I'm wrong. Zimbabwe by that theory shouldn't be the way it is today...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2003 22:31 Comments ||
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Actress/anti-liberation of Iraq activist Janeane Garofalo went on a rant on Thursday's The View against Fox News, mocking the intelligence of their reporters and denying she has anything to apologize for after promising Bill O'Reilly she would apologize to President Bush if her predictions of disaster in Iraq did not come true.
Actually, I think she was supposed to crawl across broken glass to do it, but we wouldn't hold her to that part...
âJust because a statue falls down â that's a great photo-op â doesn't mean that the war or the conflict is over,â Garofalo argued, and the âAnglo-American conflict with Iraqâ is ânot going to end anytime soon, contrary to Fox News's idea of what the news is, their version of the news."
Nobody says it is. But we've won. Vast segments of the Iraqi population are friendly toward us...
She soon denigrated Fox News again: âI don't know what is more alarming over at Fox News. Is it that they know that, in the bigger picture, there's a lot of problems over there and they scrub the information or, B, they don't know because they don't watch the news.â
That's probably it. They don't watch ABC...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 07:21 pm ||
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Scrubbing the news, eh?
What about the scrubbing for the last 12 years?
#3
Admit it, y'all. No one really expected a comunist to admit when they are wrong. It goes against the basic philosophy of communism, and Garafalo is a communist.
I guess we should just take out winnings and keep her lies uppermost in our thoughts when the thought of Garafalo comes up. And Garafalo's comeuppance is coming. Her comeuppance will be to be completely discredited by her Marxism and her apparent station in life. And the only justice for conservatives will be when she loses that station in life.
Goodbye, Jeanine. I only saw one of your movies and that was because my daughter wanted to see it. And that movie sucked, and my only consolation is that I didn't realize just how badly it sucked.
The International Greenpeace distributed a deck of cards similar to the U.S. deck of most-wanted Iraqi officials, replacing them with world leaders who possess weapons of mass destruction. "It's an exact copy (of the U.S. deck) in terms of the design and layout," the spokesman for the environmental organization, William Peden, was quoted by Russiaâs Interfax news agencies as telling the Salzburger Nachrichten on Friday. "The idea is to provide delegates with something that's not a boring piece of paper. It's something interesting and innovative that they can actually learn from — so it's an educational tool as well."
Oh, how original. How witty. How... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
U.S. President George W. Bush replaced toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein as the ace of spades, while Russiaâs Vladimir Putin, Franceâs Jacques Chirac, Chinaâs Hu Jintao, Britainâs Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israelâs Ariel Sharon in addition to a number of other leaders replaced other Iraqi officials on Greenpeaceâs deck of "most-wanted" leaders.
'Cuz, y'see, that puts them into the same category as the Iraqis. Betcha didn't catch that, didja? Oh. You did...
The Geneva-based organization handed out 600 decks to delegates at a 5-day conference on the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which opened Wednesday, April 30. "We haven't had any negative comments — not even from the U.S. delegation," said Peden. "They're such a hot item."
Maybe it's because they find the whole idea boring and trivial?
"It's actually being used by delegates in their speeches and they love it because it's full of short snappy facts about the situation of nuclear weapons around the world," Peden added. He further said that the number of nuclear weapons produced since 1945 has hit 128,000 missiles.
Ummm... Production figures aren't offset by destruction figures, are they? I thought not.
Peden said countries which possess such weapons are on the rise, noting that Israel topped the list with some 59 ballistic missiles produced over the past ten years. Along with photographs of Bush and seven other leaders are details of the number of nuclear weapons their countries possess. The deck notes that Putin comes with around 18,000 nuclear-headed missiles, Bush with 10,600, Jintao with 400, Chirac with 350, Sharon with 200, Blair with 200, Pakistanâs Pervez Musharraf with 50 and Indiaâs Atal Bihari Vajpayee with 35 missiles. Under the nonproliferation treaty, the declared nuclear powers of the 1960s — the United States, China, France, Russia and Britain — were meant to reduce their arsenals, halt the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure nuclear technology was used only for peaceful purposes. However, the accord has failed to stop other nations from becoming nuclear powers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 07:43 am ||
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Russia 18,000 nukes, US 10,600. Somebody want to 'splain to me why GWB gets to be the "Ace of spades" and all of the headlines as the worst violator? Are Russian nukes somehow more peaceful? Would we be the "Ace of Hearts" if it was Boffo Bill or Alegory had their fingers on the button? I wish someone would give me the inside track on the logic here.
Posted by: wayne ||
05/03/2003 7:59 Comments ||
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#2
"Logic? We don' need no steenkin' logic!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/03/2003 8:04 Comments ||
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#3
wayne,
Don't hold your breath.
Posted by: marek ||
05/03/2003 8:05 Comments ||
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I'll 'splain it to you Wayne: Greenpeace knows that there's not a single politician or bureaucrat anywhere near the top in the Russian government who would even bother to read their press release, so why bother. GWB as "Ace of Spades" gets a little press; Putin as "Ace of Spades" is a total snoozer. It's all about marketing and keeping those dues and contributions flowing in.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/03/2003 8:43 Comments ||
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Just when I think Greenpreach can't get any more pathetic and useless, they come up with something like this. Geez, I had more imagination (and more relevance) when I was 2!
To quote that great philosopher, Bugs Bunny, "Wotta a buncha maroons!"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/03/2003 9:17 Comments ||
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raptor - good idea. Let's see the manufacturer, who IIRC was a company in Ohio (?) file the suit here & Belgium (seat of all universal power) and put some of those donations to Greenpeace to good use.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 10:05 Comments ||
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#9
F*ck Greenpeace.
Let's issue our own cards.
Ace of Spades: The United Nations
King of Spades: Greenpeace
Queen of Spades: Amnesty International
... and so on. But let's call them the 55 least wanted.
#10
Greenpeace has had such a string of bad "luck" lately, they needed something to regain the attention they'd lost. It must really hurt to belong to such a looser organization.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 11:59 Comments ||
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#11
Is Chiraq at least a face card? Surely the Rainbow Warrior affair should count for something?
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/03/2003 12:34 Comments ||
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#12
No badanov, I wouldn't include Amnesty International. I know they have been a pain in the ass for the U.S. but they do a lot of good work to help political prisoners in totalitarian states. And I have been one so I know what that means.
#13
As a former Amnesty International member, I almost have to agree with badanov now. They USED to be impartial witnesses to human rights violations. They have been strangely silent on violations under Saddam, in the Palestinian Authority areas, and I don't recall them saying one damn thing about the prisoners that Fidel rounded up last month. I do give them credit for speaking up about Amina Lawal in Nigeria, but they have lost a major amount of their once formidable credibility.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/03/2003 13:29 Comments ||
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In yet another blow to respect for human rights, Cuban authorities have ended a three-year de facto moratorium on executions by sending three men to their deaths before an official firing squad, said Amnesty International today.
"Coming on the heels of the mass arrest and summary trials of at least 75 Cuban dissidents -- most of whom received shockingly lengthy prison terms ranging up to 28 years -- these executions mark a serious erosion in Cuba's human rights record."
Many, like Al-Shaikh Yahya, were the victims of torture. Methods of torture used included suspension followed by repeated beatings on various parts of the body, the use of electric shocks on the genitals as well as psychological torture such as torturing detainees in front of relatives or friends, and solitary confinement.
Despite national laws prohibiting it, torture has been used systematically in Iraqi prisons and detention centres for at least the last two decades. Over the years AI has interviewed hundreds of torture victims, or their relatives, many of whom now live with permanent physical or psychological damage. Some of their stories are told in a new report, Iraq: Systematic torture of political prisoners (AI Index: MDE 14/008/2001) published in August. Victims include people detained on suspicion of political activities against the government, such as being accused of having links with the Iraqi opposition outside the country or plotting to overthrow the government. Some died under torture. When their bodies were returned to their families they bore evident signs of torture, including the gouging out of the eyes, marks of severe beatings and electric shocks and finger- and toe-nails being removed.
Women have been the victims of torture such as rape and beatings on the soles of the feet, on suspicion of contacts with opposition groups or in some cases to put pressure on relatives abroad to cease their anti-government activities.
In 1994 the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq's highest executive body, headed by President Saddam Hussain, introduced decrees prescribing judicial punishments such as amputation of hand and foot, branding of the forehead and cutting off of the ears for various criminal offences. The authorities justified the punishments as a measure to combat rising crime. Army deserters and evaders were particularly targeted and many suffered ear amputation. While the practice of amputating the ears of army deserters was officially stopped in 1996, the other judicial punishments remain in force. More worryingly, in mid-2000 amputation of the tongue was reportedly approved by the authorities as a new penalty for slander or abusive remarks about the President or his family.
#15
What's that whooshing sound I hear? Could it be the sound of Greenpeace flushing the any remaining shreds of their respectability down the toilet? To think I once gave money to these quacks believing that they actually cared about the whales and the environment.
IRNA -- Kashmir's top armed organization--the Hizbul Mujahideen--on Saturday termed Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's speech in parliament on Friday as encouraging. In a statement, faxed to IRNA's Islamabad Bureau, Hizb Central chief Amir Syed Salahuddin welcomed the Indian premier's speech, calling it a "ray of hope."
Oooh. Lip service!
However, he said that Vajpayee would have to adopt an approach different from that taken by his predecessors. "It should not turn out to be a mere diplomatic exercise with no tangible objectives as has been the case in the past," he charged. The world community, he added, was fully aware of the fact that the lingering Kashmir issue could not only endanger peace in the region but could also put global peace at stake. "Because of the Kashmir issue, Islamabad and New Delhi were spending huge amounts on defense resources instead of paying attentionto the welfare of their peoples," he maintained.
And much of that money on the Pak side goes into supporting Hizbul...
Talking to IRNA, Hizb spokesman Salim Hashmi contended that the Kashmiri freedom fighters were waging their struggle in line with the UN Charter. "The struggle of the Kashmiris could in no way be termed terrorismas it will be in total negation of UN resolutions that allow movements for liberation," he said.
"The fact that we present a template for terrorist organizations is beside the point..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:31 am ||
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"...Vajpayee would have to adopt an approach different from that taken by his predecessors"
Yes, During our next Kargil-like adventure we insist that you move back your troops, provide us with six course meals and build us a highway straight to Delhi so that we don't have to dirty our clothes or waste our ammo.
IRNA -- Three of the six Al-Qaeda suspects detained on Tuesday by Pakistani rangers were handed over to US authorities on Friday night, said a local newspaper on Saturday. The daily `Dawn' reported that Waleed Mohammad bin Attash, Abu Ammar bin Abdul Aziz were handed over to US officials after Pakistani intelligence agencies had completely investigated them.
"Okay. They're inside-out now. Guess we can hand them over to the Merkins."
"Who's that third guy?"
"He doesn't have a name..."
The newspaper, however, added that although the suspects were now in US officials' custody, it was not clear whether they were still in Pakistan or flown out. Meanwhile, local agencies have intensified the operation against the alleged Al-Qaeda members while the number of suspects detained on leads provided by the six persons arrested in Karachi earlier rose to 20, the daily noted. The operation, the daily pointed out, was stepped up after the detention of Waleed Mohammad bin Attash, a Yemeni.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:24 am ||
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Pakistan on Friday demanded proof from the United States to support the placement of several pro-Pakistan groups on a terrorist watch list. âIf they have any evidence against the listed organisations, they must tell us and we will take action,â Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said. âThey [the US] have their own standpoint on the terrorist groups they have listed in their report,â Mr Hayat said. Mr Hayat said Pakistan had its own mechanisms to monitor banned terrorist groups. âWe are operating on our own and have mechanisms in place to check the activities of banned terrorist groups or any other organisation or individual. Elimination of terrorism is our consistent policy.â
Hang on, while I wipe my nose after that last statement... He seems to be referring to the al-Badr, Jamiat ul-Mujahidin, and Hizbul Mujaheddin groups. They're not terrorists, of course. They're, ummmm... freedom fighters. Yeah. That's it. They're freedom fighters.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 08:44 am ||
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Terrorism in Pak = christians, Americans, French Engineers
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 10:16 Comments ||
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Wait a minute, French Engineers would be disignated terrorists in the US too.
#3
RG: Anybody who foists Citroens on the world as an acceptable mode of transportation is too incompetent to qualify as more than annoyances ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 13:31 Comments ||
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Hmm asking for proof of terrorism - where did I hear that? Oh ya those taliban guys we axed.
Give them a quick summary, and tell them to either accept it or expect summary executions. These guys live by messing with the rules of civilized societies, and to deal with them we need to point out that we aren't as civilized as our state department.
General Ehsanul Haq, director general Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), will visit the US on Sunday on a three-day official visit. He is scheduled to meet US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenant, Mr Mohammad Sadiq of Pakistanâs embassy in Washington, told journalists here. He said the general should meet the chief of the National Security Agency too, but that depends on the CIA agenda being the host. General Ehsanâs current US visit is significant as it coincides with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitageâs Afghanistan, Delhi and Islamabad forthcoming visits. It also coincides with Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamaliâs phone talk with Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee â the first such contact in 18 months.
Things look like they're starting to break. Wonder if Ehsanul is going to be read the riot act?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 08:34 am ||
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Wonder how many passports a Pak big guy like Haq's got? Hundreds? How do they keep all the identities straight?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 10:19 Comments ||
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He needs more detonator for use against the Indian Infidels. Apparently some civilian Prime Minister is actually starting a Peace Process with the Indians, can't have that.
This follow up yesterday's report, from Reuters, for added detail...
NNI: Police have arrested two Pakistani suspects of al-Qaida and they were brought to anti-terrorist court that has sent them to police custody for interrogation Friday. "Both of them were arrested last night and we are interrogating them for their possible linkage with al-Qaida network," Inspector General Police Syed Kamal Shah told reporters. The men have been identified as Muhammad Anwar alias Jabbar and Habib Ullah alias Abdul Salam. They were carrying a large quantity of arms and explosives in a van on a Super Highway. They were stopped close to Chakar Hotel at a link road and their vehicle was checked by the police authorites. "They were arrested while moving about 134 kg (295 lb) of explosives and some weapons in a van," a police official said. He added that the arms included two sub-machine guns and two AK-47 rifles. The arms and explosives were stuffed in sacks placed in the vehicles.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 08:26 am ||
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NNI: Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmoud Kasuri Friday said that Islamabad and New Delhi have to join hands for joint struggle to keep Kashmiri youth away from path leading towards suicidal attacks by settling all the differences including Kashmir dispute amicably. The minister said, "we welcome the announcement made by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of restoring full diplomatic ties and civil aviation links with Pakistan. We — both the countries — have to settle all the disputes including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir through dialogues so that the Kashmir youth should not adopt path leading towards suicidal attacks."
Got some work to do within Pak Kashmir, I'd say...
He reiterated that Pakistan's stand for starting the meaningful dialogue on all outstanding issues including the core issue of Kashmir would largely help in finding solution to the differences between the two countries. "We welcome Prime Minister Vajpayee's announcement in Indian Parliament Friday including the one relating to the appointment of a High Commissioner. We are pleased that measures previously taken by India unilaterally which had affected our relations, are being withdrawn by the Government of India," he said.
Ummm... They were taken in response to Pak sponsored attacks within India. Seemed pretty justified at the time...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 08:19 am ||
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NNI: President General Pervez Masharraf Friday presided over an important high level meeting in the Army House that has decided to restore air links and also to reappoint High Commissioner to India. "A High Commissioner (Ambassador) will be reappointed to India," Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmoud Kasuri told the reporters. The Prime Minister House in Islamabad has also confirmed a meeting of Prime Minister Jamali with President General Pervez Masharraf that was also attended by Kasuri. The meeting has discussed international, regional and national affairs. It has also decided to appoint High Commissioner in Pakistani Mission at New Delhi in response to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's announcement in the Lower House of Indian Parliament this morning. President Masharraf convened the emergent meeting after the announcement made by the Indian Prime Minister Vajpyaee this morning. Prime Minister Jamali, Foreign Minister Kasuri, Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar, Spokesman of the Foreign Office and Additional Secretary Aziz Ahmed Khan and other senior military and civil officials, attended the meeting.
The meeting welcomed the announcement of PM Vajpayee in which he had said to appoint Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad and restore air links with Pakistan on a reciprocal basis. "Pakistan has decided to restore air links with Indian besides naming a high commissioner to New Delhi," a highly placed source in Foreign Office has said. Musharraf in an interview to a London Based TV network has hoped that Pakistan and India will soon start dialogue for normalization. "This will be a new beginning of ties between the two South Asia countries that would be in the larger interest of over a billion people in Indian and Pakistan," Musharraf said.
Vajpayee, 78 hoped to leave a legacy of peace between India and Pakistan before end of his tenure "and even before I die." The two countries went on war footing last year after India blamed Pakistan for an attack by Islamic militants on the Indian Parliament in December 2001. Pakistan denied involvement. Tensions eased after intense diplomacy by the United States and Britain and rest of the international community including Russia, Japan, China, France and many other countries. Four days after the first announcement of Vajpayee in which he had offered Pakistan for holding conditional talks, Jamali phoned the Indian leader in the first such high-level contact in almost two years. Vajpayee said he was trying for "a third time" to make permanent peace with Pakistan. In 1999, he traveled to Lahore to meet with then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but a few months later the two nations were involved in what India calls the Kargil War in the mountains of Kashmir. Vajpayee invited Musharraf to talks in the Taj Mahal city of Agra in July 2001. There were no agreements as a joint declaration was not issued when Indian authorities reduced to issue the same agreed between President Mascara and Vajpayee.
All this is, of course, a good thing. If the two countries can normalize relations and reduce the amount of irrational hatred, especially on the Pak side, it will go far to reducing the overall level of tension world-wide. For those very reasons, the jihadis will now commence to turn themselves inside out to sabotage the moves, in the same manner Hamas, al-Aqsa and Hezbollah are doing with regard to Mahmoud Abbas' accession in Paleostine. Qazi especially will be ranting and raving about the Heathen Hindoo, the perfidious ways of Delhi, and the sterling virtues of the jihadis, who are all home-grown Kashmiris. Syed Salahuddin will try for even larger numbers of corpses in Kashmir, preferably pilgrims. Hafiz Saeed will point out that real Muslim states rely on jihad for everything, to include the production of toilet paper, and Lashkar e-Taiba (also run by Hafiz) will try again for a major hit inside India, something on the order of the attack on parliament. So this is also a bad thing...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 08:03 am ||
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As an India (living in the UK) I'm all for peace but I just can't understand what Vajpayee is doing. He is rewarding Pakland for all the terrorism, he is saying that terrorism works because we will always give in to it. Remeber when Israel pulled out of Lebanon, it only emboldened the Pale terrorists.
Unfortunately I am very sceptical. As long the architect of the Kargil conflict (Pervez) is in power I see very little hope for peace. At the time, India and Pakistan had the friendliest relations for decades and there were genuine peace movement, at least for India. Pervez was the ONE guy who did every thing to sabotage it. My simple question is this, what has changed in Pervez. Why should we believe that the guy who sabotaged the peace process and brought about the worst period in Indo-Pak relations is all for Peace now. Why should we trust him, he is ultimately responsible for the hundreds of dead Indian soldier killed during Kargil.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the 31-year-old son of the revered Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq Sadr who was murdered in 1999, told thousands of faithful that the âbanning of alcohol and the wearing of the veil should be spread to all, not only Muslims.
He's 31 now? Last week he was 22...
âAlcohol and the display of a womanâs body are forbidden for us Muslims, as they are for Christians, upon whom I call to give up these banned things,â he said. âI call upon Christians not to be the corrupt of the world.â
That's news to me, Bub. Probably to most Christians, too. Does that mean only agnostics and atheists can get drunk and run around naked?
There are about 500,000 Christians in Iraq, a country of 25 million, and the community enjoyed relative freedom under the secular regime, which banned religious displays. Sadr, who unlike his father does not have religious authority to interpret the holy texts, called for liquor shops to be closed down through nonviolent means. He defended the general principle of vilaya, by which ignorant clergymen are involved in public affairs. The school of thought is opposed by other leading Shiite luminaries of Najaf such as Ali Sistani, who believes in minimal political involvement by clerics. Muqtada Sadr, meeting later Friday with reporters at his house in Najaf, spoke cautiously about the US presence, calling it best not to fight US troops, âbecause of the balance of forcesâ in their favor.
The more I read about this beauzeau, the less I like him...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 04:56 pm ||
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The Christian community in Iraq suffered under Saddam Hussein just like everyone else, but they weren't specifically targeted because of their religion. Now that Hussein is gone, there is real concern that the new government will begin to restrict their religious freedoms (just like in every other Islamic--or Communist--country).
President Bush expressed unshakable confidence Saturday about finding banned weapons in Iraq and complained that Tariq Aziz is not cooperating with U.S. forces who have him in custody. "We're learning, for example, that Tariq Aziz still doesn't know how to tell the truth," Bush said. "He didn't know how to tell the truth when he was in office, he doesn't know how to tell the truth as a captive." But Bush expressed confidence that the U.S. will learn what it needs from lower-ranking officials and ordinary citizens.
The president, at a news conference on his ranch with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, expressed confidence that the United States will locate the suspected cache of biological and chemical weapons. "Iraq's the size of the state of California," he said. "It's got tunnels, caves, all kinds of complexes. We'll find them, and it's just going to be a matter of time to do so."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 12:23 pm ||
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Long discussion at Bill Quick's and Den Beste sez that we probably already found the WMD's and just haven't released the info for many valid reasons. It would be a real shame if Aziz walked free here, physically intact
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 12:51 Comments ||
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Christ... Are we being nice to these guys instead of giving them the full Bagram?
#3
Mightn't this be disinformation to protect Tariq's clansmen as well as the presumably large number of his once (and possibly future) subalterns that Lord Ministers of Tariq's stature tend to acquire over the course of career in the service of a mighty despot?
That's to say, when Dubya casts calumny on the good name of Aziz, mightn't certain Baathist & Islamoid elements back in Mesopotamia view that as a sign of Tariq's heroism whilst in the clutches of the Great Satan?
So rather than toss all of Tariq's relatives to the 4th degree & his erstwhile underlings into ye olde Saddamite woodchipper -- hapless small fry who know too little to earn a spot in Unc Sam's witness protection program -- perhaps it's hoped this subterfuge will at least give some pause to those who might otherwise see fit to slit their throats.
The American-appointed interim Baghdad police chief resigned Saturday, one day after Iraq's U.S. administrators called on all of the capital's police officers to return to work with a slight change of uniform to help restore order. Zuhair Abdul Razaq said he submitted his resignation, which he described as a retirement, because he wanted to make way for younger leaders and spend more time with his family.
Culture's a little too different for him already, eh?
Officers from the U.S. Army's 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion appointed Zuhair interim chief April 22. He was in charge of getting former police officers back to work and guarding such important facilities as hospitals, food warehouses and banks. On Saturday, Zuhair said he had never planned to hold the post for long.
A week's certainly not long...
The 36-year veteran of the Baghdad police force and Ministry of the Interior, where he was an inspector, urged his officers to cooperate with U.S. forces. "I am retiring to allow others to be leaders, to make room for them to rebuild the police without corruption," Zuhair said. "I ask all the police forces to help the American forces."
"Now that I got myself back on the books, I've turned in my papers, and I'll expect my pension check to arrive regularly. You young guys can dodge the gunnies and the religious fanatics..."
Lt. Col. Alan King, the civilian affairs battalion commander, praised Zuhair for his work in reorganizing the Baghdad police and said he was disappointed by the resignation. He said the U.S.-led Office of Rehabilitation and Humanitarian Assistance would appoint another interim chief soon. A permanent chief will be appointed by the new government when it takes power.
"We'll just snag somebody and use him to warm the chair for awhile..."
Some unarmed police began reappearing on the streets last week, at times joining U.S. soldiers on patrols, after the devastating looting and arson that followed the U.S. military's takeover of Baghdad and ouster of Saddam Hussein's government. A coalition military radio broadcast said police would be armed with pistols starting Sunday.
At least there's somebody in the country who's not carrying an AK...
About 3,000 policemen have received a first emergency salary payment of $20 each from the American administration. Jared L. Bates, chief of staff under head administrator Jay Garner, said Friday that the number of policemen reporting was "getting better every day." But he couldn't predict how many additional officers might show up for work as a result of the special call issued for Sunday. Bates said the police have been asked to return wearing white shirts, not their old uniform jackets, and to place the badges that had been on their hats on their breast pockets. This would show that individual officers were responding to the U.S. officials' call, signaling a break with the old regime.
Cops shouldn't look like soldiers on patrol. My personal feeling is that all policemen should be required to address citizens as "sir" or "ma'am", even when forced to thump knobs on their heads. "Officer Friendly" is a much better approach than "Agent of State Security #770"...
To set an example of how the police should work in the future, Zuhair publicly turned over to King $380,000 in U.S. currency and 2.2 pounds of gold jewelry his officers had seized from black marketeers. "He has proven himself to (have) epitomized the honor of the Iraqi people," King said afterward.
Looks like he can count on his pension...
King said U.S. forces are still working on getting new uniforms for the Iraqi police, but more than 3,000 had already returned to work. So far, they have dealt with petty criminals, guarded facilities and performed joint patrols with U.S. troops. In coming days, U.S. forces will begin a training program for the police focusing on human rights, public safety and weapons safety, King said. The officers won't be allowed to patrol on their own until they go through the training, he added. The U.S. military command has announced 3,000 to 4,000 additional U.S. military police and infantrymen will enter Baghdad within the week to join 12,000 troops already in the city, reinforcing the anti-crime effort.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 12:17 pm ||
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Putting their names and addresses on the badges would probably go a long way towards restoring a service-oriented attitude amongst the Iraqi police...
#2
I don't get what the big deal is. When Communism fell in eastern Europe, the police didn't need any special re-training, they were just fine. Just give these guys a new uniform, bullets in their guns and they'll do alright.
The future of Iraq will be decided not in the US-led talks among the approved opposition parties but behind a battered grey metal door in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, that protects the Hawza, the city's main Shia seminary where Iraq's leading clerics teach.
That's if some of the Shia clerics have their way...
One of them, Sheikh Mohammed Yacubi, a former civil engineer who joined the clergy 12 years ago, is emerging as one of the key figures in the new Iraq. While some senior clerics are wary of becoming involved in politics, his supporters are not. Sheikh Yacubi told the Guardian: "Ninety-eight per cent of the people are Muslims. The Iraqi constitution must not commit to anything that will go against sharia [Islamic law]." He was guarded about saying what an Islamic constitution would mean in practice. But it was clear enough in the sermons delivered at mosques all over Iraq yesterday.
Yeah. "Veil yore wimmin and grow yore beards!"
Preaching to tens of thousands worshippers at the Qadhimaya mosque in northern Baghdad, Sheikh Mohammed al-Tabatabi said: "The west calls for freedom and liberty. Islam is not calling for this. Islam rejects such liberty. True liberty is obedience to God and to be liberated from desires. The dangers we should anticipate in coming days is the danger to our religion from the west trying to spread pornographic magazines and channels."
The common folk, of course, can't be trusted with something as dangerous as being allowed to do what they want. "Porn" in this case is shorthand for playing cards and going to movies, telling jokes, even making fun of mullahs and ayatollahs. Can't have that...
Under Saddam, Iraq was a secular society. Women had equal rights with men and freedom to dress in western clothes. It was more lax than many of its neighbours about alcohol. But Sheikh Tabatabi said: "We will not allow shops to sell alcohol and we ask for the closure of all such places and we ask you to use every available means to bring this about."
Now, in the west, most of us would just say, if you don't want to go to a beer joint, then don't. But then, most of us aren't adherents of the Master Religion...
He added that women should not be allowed to wander unveiled around Qadhimaya City.
Why? You ashamed of them, Mo? Afraid they're gonna flash you their titties?
The former US general appointed by George Bush to help create a new government, Jay Garner, has said he would not allow an Islamist state. But in the Hawza another cleric, Quais al-Khazaaly, said: "I think the right decision is to have an Islamist state. If the US blocks such a state and people want it, this will lead to lots of trouble with the US."
Got news for you, Quais. If you do get it, it'll lead to trouble with the US...
If Shias act in unison, they will rule Iraq. But they are fragmented. The Hawza is dominated by two groups, those around the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, a conservative,
... who doesn't appear to be a nut...
and those who follow Muqtada al-Sadr, a more radical figure.
Hmmm... The "army" seems to have doubled in size recently...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 11:50 am ||
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This nutcase hasn't been invited to a necktie party yet? Maybe he needs to spend a week up north with the Kurds. That may change his narrow mind - one way or the other.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 12:36 Comments ||
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This article contrasts "conservatives" with "radicals". But aren't radical conservatives usually called reactionaries or ultra-right wing? To The Guardian's readership, those terms have negative connotations...so these reactionaries are transformed into radicals.
IRNA -- Iraqi police arrested two brothers suspected of masterminding the assassination of prominent Shiite cleric Seyyed Abdul Majid al-Khoei, Iraqi Radio, currently based in Saudi Arabia, said Friday. The suspects, Abbas and Mahand Al-Baghdadi, are now being detained in a cemetery in Najaf pending investigation and arrest of other suspects.
Could the location be a hint as to what's waiting for them?
Prominent Shiite cleric Seyyed Abdul Majid al-Khoei was murdered in the Iraqi religious city of Najaf on April 10. The reports said Khoei was stabbed dead by assailants in the shrine of Imam Ali as he was saying his prayers.
I heard he was hacked to pieces, but that could have been exaggeration...
Abdul Majid al-Khoei, son of the late Ayatollah Abolqassem al-Khoei, had just returned from London to help in the relief operations for his war-devastated country. He was a resident of London for over a decade and was head of a charity organization founded by his revered father who was of Iranian origin. He helped provide emergency supplies to Kuwaiti nationals during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991. Hojjatoleslam Abdul Majid al-Khoei, 41, served Islam with his advocacy of the Islamic precepts of social justice and peace. He left Iraq in 1991 when the Iraqi Shia uprising in southern Iraq was quashed by the Iraqi dictator.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:16 am ||
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Punishing the U.N. and the anti-war camp for opposing its unilateral invasion of Iraq, the United States decided to form an Iraq stabilization force in collaboration with its war allies Britain and Poland. Washington is forging a "multinational" force to "stabilize" post-war Iraq and will seek neither a United Nations mandate nor active participation of those countries who opposed the war, a senior U.S. official said late Friday, May 2.
Further proof we're not crazy...
Iraq will be divided into three sectors to be commanded by the United States, Britain and Poland, said the official. "The thought is the force would be generated by a coalition of the willing on a bilateral basis," said the official. That would exclude a U.N.-backed force, noted AFP. British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon set the plan in motion at a meeting in London Wednesday, April 30, of 16 countries, grouping Britain, the U.S., 10 other NATO members and four non-NATO states. France, Germany and Russia, staunch opponents of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, were not invited to the London "Initial Coalition Stabilization Operations Conference."
"We'll let you know if we need any help..."
The American official said no U.N. mandate would be sought for the force, but if some countries felt they needed a NATO umbrella to participate it would be taken up in the alliance's defense planning committee. France is not a member of the committee and so could not use its veto. Asked whether the three ant-war countries were being excluded as punishment for their opposition to the war, the official said, "That's one view."
Ten nations led by the United States and Britain agreed to provide occupation forces for Iraq, the senior administration official said. The United States, Britain and Poland will provide division commanders for separate sectors in Iraq, with additional troops provided by Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Denmark, Bulgaria, Albania and the Netherlands.
No Frenchies, no Fritzies, no Ivans. The only (nominal) Muslims are the Albanians. No Arabs, not even Kuwaitis or Qataris, though there'll surely be NGOs. Two former Russian client states. I guess Kuchma's gotten off the poop list...
The Philippines, South Korea, Qatar and Australia will provide non-combat forces for missions such as staffing hospitals, destroying munitions and searching for weapons of mass destruction, officials said.
Hope they plan on sending lotsa people. There's certainly lotsa munitions to destroy...
The American sector will center on Baghdad, the British sector on Basra, and the Polish sector on Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq. The number of combat-ready forces in Iraq may at first exceed the nearly 158,000 U.S. and British forces now in the country, as arriving multinational forces overlap with forces already patrolling the California-sized nation of 25 million people.
Rumsfeld said he hoped that other nations would send troops for the three sectors that would be under the overall command of Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the commanding general of the war in Iraq. The number of U.S. forces remaining in Iraq will be determined in part by "how many other countries will be coming in to participate," Rumsfeld said. "The larger the number of countries that participate, the fewer number of forces from the United States will be needed." Rumsfeld said the United States would maintain as many troops in Iraq as necessary to allow humanitarian and reconstruction work to progress. He said it would be "a terrible mistake to think that Iraq is a fully secure, pacified environment. It is not. It is dangerous."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 07:34 am ||
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"That's one view."
that's so classically understated I suspect Cheney or Rumsfeld - both can say more with a few words than any of our diplospeakers. Rice is a possibility as well, but doesn't like to turn the knife as much
heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 10:43 Comments ||
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Fritzies? You mean Heinies, don't you? Or squarehaeads, perhaps? Having them as ancestors qualifies the quibble.
#3
Wouldn't the Qatar delegation count as Muslims, even if they aren't going to assume a combat role?
It's still unilateral, because Kofi & Jacques say so!
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/03/2003 12:47 Comments ||
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"Rice is a possibility as well, but doesn't like to turn the knife as much"
Conni has always seemed like more of a straight razor kind of girl to me. Smiling right up to the point she slits your throat.
P.S., that's one of the things I like about her.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/03/2003 13:19 Comments ||
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Giving the Poles the Kurdish areas is clever. If there's anyone who knows about surviving while stuck between two unfriendly neighbors, that's them.
U.S. occupation announced Saturday a new top management team to run the Iraqi oil ministry under the former president of Shell Oil. "We are pleased to announce the formation of an advisory board for the oil sector with Philip Carroll and Fadhel Othman in the position of chairman and vice-chairman. Mr. Carroll is a former president and CEO of Shell Oil and former CEO of engineering and construction company Fluor," said Tim Cross, a deputy to retired U.S. general Jay Garner, head of the office of construction and humanitarian assistance in post-war Iraq. "Mr. Othman served formerly as the chairman of Iraq 's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) and in positions in the Iraqi oil ministry," he added in a statement. The statement also added that after "extensive consultations and on the advice of the executive committee of the oil advisory board, we are pleased to announce that Thamir Ghadhban had agreed to accept the position of chief executive officer of the interim management team for the Iraqi oil sector." Ghadhban served as the Iraqi oil ministry's director of planning before the war, it added.
So they've got a real oil man to run things, with two Iraqis as his right and left arms. Presumably their involvement with Baathistry has been forgivable...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 07:28 am ||
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"Presumably their involvement with Baathistry has been forgivable." It may have been limited. Hussein tried to get all higher echelon people to be Baathists, but occasionally had to allow people with some brains do things that required them. The oil industry takes some mental muscle to operate correctly. Their membership may have been nominal, or even non-existent. I'd like to know, though...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 12:45 Comments ||
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With public resentment at military occupation supposedly running high across Iraq, the U.S. Army is sending its most experienced peacekeeping unit. Kurds don't seem to resent us much. Wonder why?
Over the next two weeks, the 1st Armored Division — based in Wiesbaden, Germany — will start arriving in Iraq to take up duties as a ``stabilizing force,'' said its commanding officer Maj. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez. The 16,500-member division has assisted in many international peacekeeping operations since 1991, when it first deployed to the Middle East to help expel the invading Iraqi army from Kuwait. It also was the lead unit of the 60,000-strong NATO force that entered Bosnia in 1996 after warring Serbs, Croats and Muslims signed a peace agreement in Dayton, Ohio. Notice how the Serbs got all peaceful once the 1st Armored arrived. Something the Dutch and French had been unable to accomplish.
In 1999, the 1st Armored led the U.S. contingent deployed to Kosovo to safeguard the U.N. Security Council resolution that brought peace to Serbia's southern province. In two successive paragraphs the Guardian acknowledges that the introduction of US troops is followed by peace. That's got to be a record.
The troops' experience in the Balkans may have prepared them for some aspects of postwar Iraq, where ethnic and sectarian tension and sporadic armed resistance are keeping the situation volatile, Sanchez said. Coalition forces still could encounter guerrilla resistance from militias that emerged after the breakdown of government authority, Sanchez and experts said. ``The challenges of peace could prove much more daunting than the war itself,'' said Ken Conboy, an American military author and expert on insurgencies in Third World countries.
Nice cliche. Mind if I used it?
In separate incidents earlier this week, U.S. Army soldiers in the central Iraqi town of Fallujah twice fired at anti-American protesters, killing 18 people after the soldiers said they were shot at first. In what appeared to be a direct reprisal, seven soldiers were injured when someone lobbed grenades into their compound.
I've heard that these were the pro-Sammy factions...
Iraq also has a long tradition of resistance to Western rule. Tens of thousands died in the 1920s and 1940s when the Iraqis organized uprisings in an effort to overthrow colonial rule and the pro-British monarchy imposed by London. ``That will not happen again,'' said Maj. Scott Slaten, the 1st Armored Division's spokesman and its unofficial historian. ``We will not repeat the mistakes of British (rule).'' Nor will we pillage the place the way the Belgians did the Congo. Or divide the place up based on a decree from Paris.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:30 am ||
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Allah is not pleased with American dogs who treat my Arab chosen race, as fanatics with my koran in one hand, and a rifle in the other. My slave, Jack Shaheen, tells me how your Hollywood infidels disobey my Shariah:
Posted by: Allah Akhbar ||
05/03/2003 4:43 Comments ||
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Oh, you mean like how the Hollywood Jeewwwws changed the latest Tom Clancy villains from Arabs to NeoNazis for political correctness. STFU Jack - if you don't understand how the master race keeps living down to expectations, wear a cross or star of david in Riyadh
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 11:22 Comments ||
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Yes, as opposed to the fair, honest, balanced reporting in Arab papers on Jews and Americans.
Maybe if Jack baby actually watched one of the movies he criticizes, "True Lies", he would have realized one of the guys helping to get the terrorists was an ARAB.
Posted by: Baba Yaga ||
05/03/2003 13:10 Comments ||
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Aid agencies called for the United Nations to take over running Iraq yesterday and warned that the power vacuum was threatening to undermine efforts to deliver vital relief supplies. Nope, no vested interests here!
Just a day after President Bush declared military operations over, Britain's five biggest aid agencies and their Muslim counterparts described the situation in the country as "serious and deteriorating". "Cuz we ain't running the joint!"
Broken water plants and sewage systems threaten to spread disease epidemics, according to the agencies, and hospitals, already under strain before the war, are struggling to cope with serious outbreaks of disease. "The people of Iraq are suffering," the agencies said. "In parts of the country, the situation is critical. Hospitals are overwhelmed, diarrhoea is endemic and the death toll is mounting. Clean water is scarce and diseases like typhoid are being reported in southern Iraq." Of course, it's getting better on a daily basis.
The agencies said occupying forces were failing in their duties under the Geneva convention to ensure the orderly delivery of humanitarian assistance. Local militias have forced people out of their homes and threatened hospitals, aid workers reported. "In a country made up a mosaic of ethnic, religious and tribal groups, this can only lead to more turbulence and more misery for those civilians caught in between." "And we'll be sure to keep it that way, 'cuz we're from the U.N., and makin' folks feel different is second nature to us!"
To fill the power vacuum, the agencies said the UN had to be put in charge of Iraq's transition to democracy. "For any solution to be sustainable, the UN has to have a central role in overseeing and managing the transition to a representative, accountable and democratic Iraqi government," the agencies said. Do you guys understand the meaning of the phrase, "go piss up a rope"?
"Time is running on, and still there has been no and will not be any agreement on the role of the UN in the coordination or reconstruction of the country." Britain and the rest of Europe would prefer to see the UN in charge of running the country, but hardliners in Washington have scorned the idea, preferring to put a 'made in America' stamp on the reconstruction effort led by the retired US general Jay Garner.
If we hose it, they'll be able to blame us. I get the feeling they don't think we're going to hose it...
Poul Nielson, the EU's aid commissioner is expected to stress the need for the UN to be given a central role when he visits Baghdad next week. What else would an EU commissioner stress?
Mr Nielson, a critic of the US-led war, is to meet senior officials from the UN and the Red Cross. It is not clear whether he will meet Mr Garner. I'm sure Mr. Garner has all sorts of time for EU-nik critics.
EU countries want a new UN resolution to create a clear international legal framework for postwar Iraq. The union has allotted allocated â¬31m (£24m) aid to Iraq since the war began, distributing the money through the Red Cross, Unicef, and other aid agencies. It is now considering whether to set up its own Baghdad office. Great, about $35 million bucks, and they think they should own the joint.
The EU's first aid delivery was held up last night after the US refused permission for its plane to land in Baghdad. "Nope, sorry, ain't safe for EU-niks yet, try us again next year."
A diplomatic source said the plane was to have flown via Turkey, but the United States was concerned it might be shot at when it entered Iraqi airspace. Virgin's chief executive, Richard Branson, flew into Basra airport yesterday with 60 tonnes of medical supplies aboard the first commercial airliner to arrive in Iraq since the war. Notice Rich isn't belly-aching about who's in charge, he's just getting on with the work.
The UN also landed its first supplies last night in Umm Qasr in a ship carrying 14,000 tonnes of rice. But with the security situation preventing free movement around the country, aid agencies said delivering the supplies would be a challenge. If there's a security problem, we'll take care of it. I haven't seen this anywhere else so I think the Guardian is blowing smoke.
The World Food Programme said rice would be distributed by the end of May, when households are are likely to run short of supplies. Before the war, Umm Qasr handled most of the humanitarian aid shipped to Iraq under the UN oil-for-palaces food programme, which allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine. About 60% of Iraq's population was estimated to be dependent on food rations delivered since 1997 to offset the effects on civilians of international sanctions. And that's something else we're going to fix over time. No reason why the Iraqis can't feed themselves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:05 am ||
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How about using your hot air and temper tantrums to get all sanctions lifted? No fun huh? It would be the ultimate "screw you" by Bush if all aid to Iraq was funneled through Magen David Adom - heh heh, not gonna happen, but the spittle and eye-rolling throughout the Arab lands would be excellent viewing
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2003 11:33 Comments ||
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"Virgin's chief executive, Richard Branson, flew into Basra airport yesterday..."
And his pilot was an Iraqi exile who works for Virgin Alantic Airways...nice touch, that.
#3
Yeah, the UN has done such a wonderful job at everything else it has attempted to do, including protecting UN humanitarian aid workers (on the other hand, top level UN administrators for such projects tend to be very well compensated and equally well insulated from life in the trenches).
On Wednesday, a Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman announced the arrest of Khalid bin al-Atash in Karachi, along with some Afghans and one Pakistani. Asia Times Online has reported on Khalid's movements showing that the one-legged al-Qaeda operations chief was very much back in business. Despite the claims of the Interior Ministry, intelligence sources have confirmed to Asia Times Online that Khalid was in fact arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Balochistan. Khalid was said to be in the process of hiring local men to carry out an attack on Jacobad's Shehbaz airbase, which is used by the US Air Force.
The Paks said they picked him up in Karachi, recall...
Khalid was arrested by members of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani law enforcers along with a few of his Afghani guards and a Pakistani Baloch, who was to be involved in the attack on the airport. Khalid was then taken to Karachi, where he was revealed to the press. The reason for this was that the Kabul government had recently made renewed charges of the infiltration of terrorists into Afghanistan from the Balochistan border areas, and the Pakistanis didn't want the arrest to lend credibility to the accusations.
That's pretty devious. Admitting they grabbed hm there would have told the Americans and the Afghans that they were serious. And it's not like we wouldn't know, if the FBI was in on the arrest...
Khalid has been connected to the Sheraton hotel bomb blast in Karachi last year in which several French engineers were killed. He had narrowly escaped arrest on several occasions, notably in Karachi and Quetta. He recently entered Afghanistan and made some border towns near Pakistan his base.
Where he could be close to the remaining Qaeda largewigs...
In the past few months, a number of people like Khalid have entered Afghanistan, including from Palestine, Lebanon and Kashmir, united in their desire to strike against American targets. The driver of this new international brigade is the Egyptian Jamaat al-Jehad, led by Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's right hand man. (This group merged with al-Qaeda, but it has an independent following in Egypt). In the context of the war in Iraq, Jamaat's leaders have redirected the energies of militants to concentrate purely on US targets, saying that it is the real enemy. Ayman's whereabouts are unknown, but recent reports have placed him in Yemen and Afghanistan. Wherever he is, though, he is the mastermind behind restructuring the International Islamic Front, given that al-Qaeda has been badly fractured. The emphasis will be on small operations with a nexus of local groups, and its main tool will be suicide attacks. This new face will be unveiled sooner rather later, but it will be identified more by its actions than by its name.
The writer's discussing the International Islamic Front as though it's a new organization, but it's just another name for al-Qaeda. Binny was referring to it as early as 1990.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 06:23 pm ||
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The Department of Defense is ready to proceed with military trials of detained "terrorist suspects" when President George W. Bush gives the green light, American officials said.
After which we may "kill them"...
The Pentagon has, in effect, issued a set of eight instructions that would cover the conduct of any military commissions or tribunals that could be used to try the foreign detainees, including al-Qaeda suspects, at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They include administrative procedures, the responsibilities of the prosecutors and defence counsels and sentencing, and they list the crimes which might be tried, including terrorism, hijacking and hostage-taking. "Eight military commission instructions that the general counsel of the Department of the Defense has issued . . . were prepared as part of the process to be ready in case the President decides that it's appropriate to try any captured enemy combatants by military commission," one official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "The defendant in a military commission will always have a military defense counsel, a JAG (judge advocate general), who will have access to all classified information. The civilian defense counsel may or may not have access to all classified information, depending on the level and sensitivity of the information."
The lefties and the moral hemophiliacs are going to bitch and moan about this, if and when it's put into effect. But they've been bitching and moaning about the very existence of Guantanamo. We're damned if we keep 'em without doing anything, damned if we do anything...
Another official sought to draw a distinction between a military commission and a court martial. "Courts martial have historically been used primarily for good order and discipline of our armed forces," he said. "Military commissions have been used for perhaps a wider variety of things. But in every case of a war crimes trial, violation of the laws of war, historically the United States has used military commissions... Military commissions are usually associated with times of armed conflict."
Our own soldiers get court martialed — the Uniform Code of Military Justice is the military's internal law book. Unlawful combatants get a trial by military commission, and the UCMJ doesn't come into it.
The instructions for the commissions were established a month after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington , when Bush signed a decree on "the detention, treatment and trial of certain non-citizens in the war on terrorism." The commissions could sit in the United States or abroad, theoretically including the U.S. Marine base at Guantanamo where more than 650 alleged Taliban and al-Qaeda members have been held since January 2002 without trial. Unlike courts martial, the military tribunals would be held in public. Officials said the rules would not apply to Iraqis arrested during the war in Iraq, except for "international terrorists captured in Iraq."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 07:53 am ||
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"The acursed has been fully advised of his lack of rights under the Secret Code of Military Toughness, and will conduct himself accordingly!"
#2
let's see, this is May 2003, need to give the defense plenty of time to prepare. Next election is Nov. 2004. My guess is that there won't be any hangings taking place before then.
Ivory Coast's army and rebels signed a total ceasefire covering all fronts on Saturday with promises that it would bring an end to more than seven months of war that have torn apart the West African country. More limited truces have been signed before, but bloody clashes have continued in the west of the world's top cocoa producer and threatened to ruin a peace deal. Troops from former colonial power France said that once it was clear the sweeping ceasefire was holding they were prepared to move quickly into the chaotic west, where fighting is entangled with years of savage war in neighbouring Liberia.
Ivory Coast's army chief General Mathias Doue and rebel Colonel Michel Gueu, sports minister in a coalition government set up under a January peace deal, signed the ceasefire that takes effect from midnight (0000 GMT) on Sunday. "It is a historic day because I think it will mean the end of the war across the whole of Ivory Coast," Gueu told Reuters after smiles and back-slapping with high-ranking former enemies in gold-braided uniforms. "There may be incidents here and there, but we can say that with today's agreement we are coming to the end of the war," acting defence minister Assoua Adou told Reuters.
Although there were no immediate reports of fighting in the west on Saturday, the situation remains extremely tense. Clashes there involve not only rebels and soldiers, but Liberian fighters and mercenaries on both sides. Since the main MPCI rebel faction began to expel Liberian fighters allied to two other rebel groups late last month, there are signs it is becoming the overwhelmingly dominant force in western rebel-held areas as well as the Muslim north. A commander from the MJP faction, who earlier in the week said he would have nothing to do with the latest ceasefire, declined to comment. The next step, agreed with the Ivorian forces as well as Liberia's embattled government, is for French and West African peacekeepers to move into the West. Between 600 and 900 French troops could be deployed there. "We are ready to move very quickly once we have the sign," said General Emmanuel Beth, overall commander of a French mission nearly 4,000-strong that is helping restore peace to what was once a jewel of France's former empire.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 06:45 pm ||
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They may not be senior members of al-Qaida, but the U.S. military is quietly celebrating the capture of several mid-level operatives. Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong says the captures occurred in the Horn of Africa region and he credits local government leaders for their cooperation. When asked to describe those caught, DeLong says, 'not the very highest rank." But, he notes the captures took place in at least three of the five-countries in the Horn of Africa region. DeLong says the arrests are being kept fairly quiet to protect those assisting the effort. Central Command set up a task force aboard the USS Mount Whitney in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Djibouti.
Nice. A little news from an area without much news...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 05:26 pm ||
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Sweet -- bagged a few elk hunters, did they?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 23:07 Comments ||
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The Judicial Council issued a death sentence for Ahmad Ali Mansour on Friday after he was convicted of deliberately shooting eight people dead and injuring four others, at a shoot-out in the private teachersâ fund at UNESCO, on July 31, 2002. The Judicial Council, headed by Judge Tanios Khouri and in the presence of State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum, issued a final judgment, which cannot be appealed, nine months after the murder that was described as âthe UNESCO massacre.â Mansour did not attend the court session, but his lawyer Ibrahim Hariri was present.
Mansour, 45, entered the office where he had been working for the previous 25 years on July 31, pulled out two machine guns and sprayed his colleagues with bullets. The family of the victims expressed their relief over the verdict, as the president of the Union of Private School Teachers and the father of victim Rachel Rahmeh, George Saade, told reporters that âeven if the verdict cannot give us back the ones we lost, it will serve as a lesson for people like Ahmad Mansour and will stop them for committing such acts of cold blooded murder against innocent people.â The council refused to take into consideration Mansourâs allegations that he committed the murders because an employee at the fund, Romeo Qabalan, insulted Islam and Muslims during a quarrel.
Well, hey! He only killed eight people and injured four others. Perfectly understandable if Romeo insulted Islam and Muslims. What'd he say? "You Muslims think your religion gives you the right to slaughter anybody who doesn't agree with you"?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 04:46 pm ||
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Actually, there are a good many Muslims who apparently believe just that.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Thursday that Hizbullah was a Lebanese political party and that any issue concerning the organization should be sorted out by the Lebanese themselves. Speaking to reporters in Beirut, after conferring with President Emile Lahoud and Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, Sharaa said his country welcomed US Secretary of State Colin Powellâs visit. He added that Powell could convey to Syria any message directly and âwithout hostility.â
I wouldn't call that much of an example of "standing up" for Hezbollah. More like passing the buck to the colonials. Does that mean they're cutting to cord to Hezbollah? If Syria cuts their cord, that leave only the Iranian cord. Cut both of them, and the Lebanese might indeed be able to "sort it out" themselves.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 04:39 pm ||
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Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, opening a new phase of direct American diplomacy in the Middle East, met today with President Bashar al-Assad and said afterward that Syria had begun closing the offices of at least some militant anti-Israel groups in Damascus as demanded by the United States.
My guess is that this is one of those promises they don't intend to follow through on...
Although Mr. Powell gave no details and Syria provided no immediate confirmation, a senior State Department official said that Syria had shut down the offices of three organizations that the United states considers terrorist. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, identified them as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
If so, that is a step in the right direction. I'd hate to imagine the hedging around it, though...
Syria has long maintained that the groups only kept information offices in Damascus. The State Department official also said that Syria was taking steps to ensure that members of the groups would limit their television appearances from Damascus.
I'd rather see them limit their operational control...
In his visit to Syria, Mr. Powell said that "a new strategic situation" had emerged with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. It appeared that the administration's message had already been heard in Syria. Speaking at a news conference in Beirut hours after a visit to Damascus, Mr. Powell said of the Syrian government: "They did some closures. I expect them to do more with respect to access and the appearance of various officials of organizations, and we've provided some other suggestions to the Syrians that they have taken under advisement. And I expect to hear back from them in the future."
I hope that one of those suggestions was to kill as many of them as possible, before we have to come in and do it...
The closings appeared to be a breakthrough in dealing with Syria, which has had an up-and-down relationship with the United States over the years and more recently has been labeled by some American officials as a junior member of the "axis of evil" because of its tolerance of the groups' presence. The United States has tried for years to get the offices closed. For Syria, they represented a sign of its commitment to the Palestinian cause in the Arab world and as a means of pressure on its foe, Israel.
To us, they represented a sign of the dirt under Syria's nails...
Their closing was also welcomed by the United States because it considers the attacks sponsored by Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the occupied territories and Israel an obstacle to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 04:24 pm ||
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Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher received Saturday the head of the Kurdish government in the northern Iraqi governorate of Sulaymaniya, Barham Saleh, in the first contact after the collapse of the Iraq regime and efforts to set up an interim Iraqi government. The Iraqi Kurdish official praised Egypt's stance, noting the Egyptian government dealt with the Iraqi situation rationally, expressing hope Egypt would support the "new" Iraq which wants to have friendly relations with its neighbours. In statements to Al-Ahram, Saleh said he had met with Omar Suleiman, head of the Egyptian intelligence, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. He said his meeting with Moussa was frank and that he explained to the Pan-Arab organization dried how the Iraqi citizens' disappointment in the Arab League due to its indifference about the Iraqi people's suffering during the Saddam Hussein regime. He said the Iraqi people deserves apology for slack on the part of the Arab regime and Arab League.
Yep. That's pretty frank, alright. Wonder if he slapped him before or after telling him that?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 12:46 pm ||
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Where was the rest of him?
Posted by: El Id ||
05/03/2003 14:46 Comments ||
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Since September 11, 2001, Azerbaijan has added to an already strong record of cooperation with the United States, rendering dozens of foreign citizens with suspected ties to terrorists, Turan reported today. While Azerbaijan had previously been a route for international mujahidin with ties to terrorist organizations seeking to move men, money, and materiel throughout the Caucasus, Baku stepped up its interdiction efforts in 2002 and has had some success in suppressing these activities. The Government also approved changes to the criminal code that increased the maximum penalty for acts of terrorism from 15 years to life imprisonment and added a provision making the financing of terrorist activities a crime. In April, the Justice Ministry revoked the registrations of two Islamic charities the Kuwait Fund for the Sick and the Qatar Humanitarian Organization for activities against Azerbaijan's national interests. In November, Azerbaijan froze the bank accounts of locally registered Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) pursuant to UNSCR 1373. In April, the Government sentenced six members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist political movement that wants to establish a borderless, theocratic caliphate throughout the entire Muslim world, to up to seven years in prison for attempted terrorist activities. In May, Azerbaijan convicted seven Azerbaijani citizens who had received military and other training in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge and who had intended to fight in Chechnya. Azerbaijan is a party to eight of the 12 international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism.
This is more of a press release than news, but how much hard news do we have coming out of Azerbaijan?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 12:31 pm ||
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A hostage standoff by disgruntled Nigerian oil workers off the West African coast appeared to be winding down after a British captive was released and the rest were promised their freedom. The release of the hostages came after the Houston-based Transocean Inc. struck an accord with the strikers, who have demanded the reinstatement of fired workers and that they be transported to the rigs by helicopters, not boats.
Tell the SBS they can stand down...
Still, violence continued to plague the volatile Niger Delta, the heart of the country's oil industry. On Friday, the Nigerian navy battled boatloads of heavily armed Ijaw militants, who are boycotting Saturday's state legislative elections. Local media reported 12 ethnic Ijaws and two navy men were killed, although those reports could not be immediately confirmed.
They boycott state legislative elections, so the navy shoots 'em up? Must be another of those quaint local customs. I'd say being an Ijaw really sux. Maybe they should become Mormons...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 12:00 pm ||
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The bagpipes didn't work, the accordians didn't work, so we broke out the banjos.
PAUL GEITNER
Associated Press
While President Bush has declared major fighting over in Iraq, the repercussions of the war for the rest of the Mideast are just starting to be felt, and it's an open question about whether for better or worse.
Ummm... I'd say better. How 'bout you, Paul?
Radical regimes in Syria and Iran are suddenly toning down the anti-U.S. rhetoric and urging dialogue. Authoritarian leaders in Egypt and Jordan are talking â with varying degrees of enthusiasm â about democratization, while militants in the streets of Cairo and Amman predict a wave of new recruits to fight the American occupiers and their supporters.
"Varying degrees" of enthusiasm translates into "little" to "very little" so far...
Awed by Washington's display of firepower in Iraq, no one looks likely to claim Saddam's mantle as leader of defiance to the West. Even Syria, which likes to refer to itself as the "heart of Arabism," welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell this weekend for tough talk about its own weapons program, allegations that Damascus aided Saddam's regime and links to terrorism.
I imagine the communiquÚ on this one will reference "frank discussions". Syria's kind of backed into a corner, though, so watch 'em â they'll try to bite...
"The U.S. doesn't need to invade any more countries," said Iman Hamdi, an expert on Mideast affairs at the American University in Cairo. "We've got the message."
"Of course, we're trying to interpret it into something more to our liking. I mean, it's not like we're ever willingly gonna give the common folk something as dangerous as personal liberty..."
Lebanon also has felt the heat because of the presence there of the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group. Beirut regards Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance movement against Israel. But Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, seems worried too. "In the end, we are facing a new reality," he told supporters after the U.S. victory in Iraq.
"Whattya think? Should we spit? Or go blind?"
Iranian hard-liners are signaling a new willingness to consider the possibility of restoring ties with Washington, cut since the 1979 Islamic revolution and hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy. After Washington charged Iran was trying to promote an Iranian-style theocracy in Iraq, Tehran was quick to deny it.
"We don't want no truck with them guys," he said, sullenly...
Some have suggested Washington's professed determination to establish a democratic government in Iraq could have a domino effect in the region - depending on how it goes. "If it fails and Iraq descends into civil strife ... the effect would be devastating," said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Mideast studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. "Militant forces would be strengthened. America's vital interests and local allies would be endangered."
"Yasss... Better never to have done anything, right?"
Some of those moderate allies have been taking democratic steps, even if small ones. Bahrain had its first parliamentary elections in three decades last October. Qatari voters approved their first constitution this week and the first parliamentary elections are expected next year. In Jordan, which has been without a parliament for two years, King Abdullah II promises elections will finally go ahead June 17. "That'll get us back on the right track as quickly as possible," he said in a CNN interview. "We're not looking over our shoulder. I mean we're looking to the future and moving."
"And we've got a good head start on the other kleptocracies around us..."
By contrast, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dismissed the notion that "imposing democracy by force" in Iraq would result in wholesale reforms in the Islamic world or a lessening of fanaticism. He said Wednesday that Arab countries were trying to bring democracy "according to their own standards."
"If we don't tell the common folk how to vote, there's no telling who they'll elect. My boy might have to find a job! And the idea of letting people do whatever they want, whether the mullahs like it or not â well, that's just unthinkable."
Mubarak wields ultimate control in Egypt under emergency laws in place since the 1981 assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, by extremists opposed to the peace deal with Israel.
Uhhh... That's 22 years of emergency laws. Was it Heinlein who pointed out that there's nothing so permanent as an emergency power?
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, is also feeling rattled. Just before the war, the ruling family allowed human rights teams to visit and meet with reformers, a signal that it senses change is the best way to protect its rule.
"Spit. Go blind. Spit. Go blind. Hell, I can't decide! How about you Abdullah?"
Mass popular disillusionment with Arab governments after the Iraq war could also undermine the already divided 22-nation Arab League.
"A curse on their collective moustache!"
Rounds of summitry over the Iraq crisis degenerated into bickering and name-calling. Joint pronouncements against the war were undermined by some members who helped the U.S.-led invasion force, whether overtly or quietly. The league's "teeth are made of flesh," said Ayed al-Manna, a political analyst in Kuwait, which has sharply criticized the league.
I'd have characterized them as decayed and rotted, myself...
Some analysts say the main impact of the war may be to force Arabs and their leaders to address their problems â and the rest of the world â more honestly. "The only positive thing in the long run is it's going to make people here wake up to all the illusions they have with the West," Hamdi said. "It puts things in perspective and maybe then we can find a way to better serve our own interests."
Maybe "Death to America!" isn't in your own interest, eh?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 11:18 am ||
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Gosh, it's almost as if the war on Saddam had... exactly the effect intended throughout the Arab world. Who could've guessed?? My, my...
Three phrases that are now defunct, in my opinion:
"Saddam's elite Republican Guard",
"our allies, the French", and
"it might inflame the Arab street".
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/03/2003 11:40 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmm...perhaps did I not pay enough attention reading this article. A typical AP piece usually starts with a positive statement that we can all agree on...accepted conventional wisdom....then inevitably adds a "but" or "however" where the author dissects this wisdom and eventually makes the point that, what at first blush may appear to be conventional wisdom, is, upon deeper examination, folly caused by America's bumbling and ineptitude.
Where is the hook in this piece? I don't see it! Where are the bad repercussions that lurk beneath the surface. Could it be that the AP is actually going to acknowledge a positive result from the war????? I'm shocked.
IRNA - British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, using a traditional 'carrots and sticks' approach, offered Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) a stark choice Friday of cooperation or confrontation. "My conviction is that a real opportunity now exists for North Korea," Rammell said. "An opportunity to confirm unambiguously its commitment to come out of isolation and to work with the international community, its nations and its institutions," he said. He said that if it accepts the offer, it would find Britain an "enthusiastic partner."
That's if it accepts the offer...
But he warned if it rejected the opportunity, North Korea would "find Britain just as determined in its non cooperative efforts to contain and mitigate the problem." Speaking at Workshop on DPRK-EU Relations at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, the Foreign Office Minister went as far as threatening a "range of measure, including, if necessary sanctions" to contain the risk of nuclear proliferation. "It implies not just containment, but isolation, disengagement, further economic degradation, all of which would damage the security or prosperity of the country," he told North Korea's Vice-Foreign Minister Choe, attending the workshop.
How's that different from what they have now?
The meeting, which was closed to the media, comes two days after Pyongyang opened its first-ever embassy in London in the latest move to improve bilateral ties following the establishment of diplomatic relations for the first time since December 2000. Rammell told his DPRK counterpart, in what appeared to be in a patronizing manner, that Britain wanted to welcome North Korea into the international community and to "develop out political and trade relationship for the benefit of both our countries."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:11 am ||
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It won't take Rodong to have a cow over this statement.
"A stern warning to the poodle like Anglo bourgeois capitalist running-dog lackeys! You will all burn in a Sea of FireTM from the superior implementation of the army-based policy extolled by the Dear LeaderTM!"
#2
*holds up card* 6.2. "Capitalist running-dog lackeys" is Classic vietnamese, and rarely used by the NKors, Raj. Bone up on your phraseology and keep trying. Practice makes perfect.
IRNA -- A senior Iranian cleric on Friday denounced as 'false' US claims that it respected human rights in Iraq and sought to establish democracy in that country as he called on Iraqis to determine their fate by following clerics and maintaining their unity. "America is making fun of all such issues as democracy and human rights," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told thousands of worshipers to the chants of 'Death to America' at weekly Friday prayers here. "America is committed to none of UN resolutions nor democracy," the cleric said and denounced Washington for acting as if it were the 'custodian' of the Iraqi people.
At the moment, we are...
He called Iraq and Palestine as 'the most important issues of the Islamic world' and reminded Islamic states of the founder of the Islamic Revolution late Imam Khomeini's warning that they 'resist America and Israel'. "The Iraqi nation will ultimately come to the conclusion that they have no other choice than (waging) an Intifada," the cleric said, citing the Palestinian style of uprising against the Israeli occupation.
And certain elements in Iran are working hard on making that happen...
He also lashed out at the use of force and violence by US troops in Iraq and said, "The Iraqi people, after release from a wolf like Saddam (Hussein), have now been trapped by another wolf (like America)."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 10:02 am ||
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Only the Iranian clercs can of course respect human rights and establish democracy, right?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 12:26 Comments ||
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Why is it that the ones who are the most abusive of basic human rights are the ones that complain the loudest about the actions of others? This is like Ted Bundy or Richard Ramirez complaining about the pervasive culture of violence against women in America.
Israel is stepping up the detention and deportation of pro-Palestinian foreign peace activists and will try to block new âhuman shieldsâ from entering the country, Israeli security sources said on Friday. âThese foreigners, for all their good intentions, end up being used as cover for terrorism,â one source said. âAn added concern now is that terrorists could try to enter Israel under the guise of `peace activist.â"
Taking the "useful" out, so now they're just idiots...
In the first sign of the new crackdown, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was detained by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza refugee camp Rafah on Thursday.
"Hi! We're from the IDF. Get the hell out."
Military sources said the woman activist was sleeping in a house suspected of concealing one of the tunnels used by militants to smuggle arms from nearby Egypt, and her case was being handled by the Foreign Ministry. The ISM positions foreign activists as âhuman shieldsâ around the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army is confronting a 31-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. Pursuing their arrest on a large scale in Palestinian areas would require special incursions by the Israeli forces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/03/2003 09:55 am ||
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Instead of deporting them to their country of origin, maybe they could deport them to a country where their outspoken activism would be more appreciated. I have a vision of deporting them to Zimbabwe so that they protest the actions of Robert Mugabe's government, for example. That would be a good thing.
Anna Perez, White House communications counselor, Friday sharply contested a United Press International report that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and political adviser Karl Rove shut down a Pentagon plan to expand the Iraqi ground war to Syria in closing days of combat. "That never happened," she said. "It is a complete fabrication."
Powell's in Syria right now, isn't he? This story gives him something to talk to Bashar about...
Perez also said there was no meeting on this subject at the White House with Israeli National Security Adviser Efrian Halevy and other officials. UPI's report, published Friday afternoon, quoted unidentified administration officials as saying that a combination of Pentagon hawks and senior Israeli officials had been pressing the United States to expand the ground war to Syria. Hitting Syria then would have been foolish. A lot of Americans would have said, "what the hey?"
On the other hand, hinting to Syria that they got off by the skin of their collective teeth isn't a bad diplowhacker...
The U.S. strikes on Syria would have taken the form of brief across-the-border forays under "hot pursuit" rules of engagement. They said contingency plans for such raids were being drawn up by Doug Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, after the approval of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In response to Halevy's entreaties for action, these sources said, Rice repeated an assertion that the White House did not want any further military campaigns for the rest of Bush's first term, according to the sources. They said Rumsfeld objected, and, at one point, turned to Rove and asked his opinion. Rove said the president agreed with Rice, and the meeting came to an end.
That's too bad. I was hoping they'd thump a third target, just to drive the message home...
Perez asserted Friday that this meeting didn't take place. She also said that to her knowledge, UPI had not attempted to contact participants.
Of course not. The story was a plant...
Beginning Monday, UPI began calling White House officials to get the administration's position on the story. It placed a call to Sean McCormack, director of communications for the National Security Council, on several occasions and left voice messages. The calls were not returned. "We ain't talkin'!"
The hawks proposed punitive raids because Syria and the United States already were bristling at each other, and the war simply took an unfortunate series of circumstances and brought them to a point of crisis, administration sources said. In spite of Syria's heightened cooperation in the war on terror, with Syria giving the United States much useful information about al-Qaida, it was still supporting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the war. Former CIA Middle East expert Bob Baer told UPI that Syria possesses "a chemical arsenal that is much more lethal than anything Saddam has," and explained that "in Israeli strategic thought, the most dangerous threat is the geographically closest" â which would mean Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:43 am ||
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Good cop/bad cop leaks to get Syria's attention. "Deal with Colin today -- that's the best deal you're going to get!"
Posted by: Tom ||
05/03/2003 8:50 Comments ||
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... and at the same time as 1AD is being deployed to Iraq.
The 82nd is pulling out.
International peacekeepers are pouring in.
That's going to leave us with 1AD, 3ID, 4ID and 101AAD in the 'army' sector, which is to say, Baghdad and north.
Powell can definitely afford to speak softly.
The United States — backed by Britain — is pushing for "regime change" in Zim-Bob-We that would see President Robert Mugabe replaced by a member of the ruling Zanu-PF party. The new president would then call a constitutional conference and organise elections to be monitored by the international community. How many nations do we need with us this time before it's no longer 'unilateral'?
President George Bush is sending Walter Kansteiner, his special adviser on Africa, to the region next week. The US is persuading African leaders to back its strategy to use regional pressure to bring about the regime change. Rather than demand an immediate re-run of the March 2002 presidential election, which international observers accused Mr Mugabe of rigging, the US is pushing a so-called "Palestinian strategy". This refers to the sidelining of Yasser Arafat in favour of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas. Bob and Yasser could go shopping in Paris. That would be okay.
America, Britain and South Africa have indicated that the country's former finance minister Simba Makoni is a suitable interim figure to take over from Mr Mugabe. Mr Makoni is untainted by the worst excesses of the Mugabe regime and has publicly denounced the chaotic land seizures that have driven the country to the edge of disaster. Thus making him totally unsuitable in the eyes of the other party leaders.
Tony Blair and Mr Bush have not discussed the Zimbabwe situation in their many conversations over the recent months. But Mr Blair wants the issue raised at next month's G8 summit in Evian, France. "I would like to see a bigger focus by the international community on Zimbabwe," he told the Financial Times this week. "Now there's a limit to what you can do but I have never had a difficulty with the concept of intervention. It doesn't necessarily mean ... armed intervention, it can be diplomatic." And we all know what Clauswitz said about armed intervention and diplomacy!
British ministers denied that the US plan was a payback for Mr Blair's support over Iraq. One Government source said: "If there was a quid pro quo, it was on the Middle East peace process and the publication of the road-map." African leaders, including South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, have openly supported Mr Mugabe despite widespread international condemnation. They have also succeeded in undermining British attempts to isolate his regime internationally, most recently insisting that he be invited to the Franco-Africa summit organised by President Jacques Chirac.
To us, Bob's a bloody-handed dictator, a racist, a kleptocrat, and totally inept as an administrator. His peers will usually admit that he's a little worse than most...
Over the past three months Mr Mbeki's views on regime change have changed, according to Mr Kansteiner. South Africa now accepts Mr Mugabe should be edged aside, he said. Now that there's nothing left to steal.
Other influential African countries including Botswana, Mozambique, Senegal, Ghana agree that Mr Mugabe's removal from power is the only realistic step towards resolving the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe, which threatens to plunge the region into humanitarian and economic chaos. Mr Mbeki believes it would be easier to lobby international support for Zimbabwe with a new leader. Mr Mbeki, Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Malawi's President, Bakili Muluzi, arrive in Zimbabwe on Monday for talks with Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. How 'bout letting Morgan run the place for a while?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:38 am ||
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I dunno, the idea of Bob holed up in Ramallah seems like a good one...
EFL.
China confirmed yesterday that 70 officers and sailors had died on one of its diesel-powered submarines. It is one of the worst naval accidents in the country's history. Follow-up of earlier Rantburg report, so now it's official.
In a brief and vague report that left the timing of the incident unclear, the Xinhua News Agency said the deaths had occurred "recently" in Chinese waters east of the Neichangshan islands in the Yellow Sea, between China and North Korea. The submarine was on an exercise when the accident occurred, and "because of a mechanical malfunction, the 70 crew members on board died," Xinhua said. Citing unidentified "navy sources", the news agency said the vessel had already been towed back to a port, also unidentified. Military analysts in the West said it was probably a Ming-class diesel-electric submarine, of a type often used for coastal defence. Ming-class submarines usually carry a crew of 50, suggesting that some aboard were technicians or staff officers. First made by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, the Chinese made them until the 1990s. They are thought to have more than a dozen still in operation. Western defence specialists say they they are obsolete by modern standards. China's 2.5 million-strong People's Liberation Army includes a fleet of about 90 submarines, most of them aging diesel-electric vessels. They are known to suffer from a shortage of funding and insufficient maintenance. Police state and motivated maintenance workers don't go together.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:34 am ||
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Chinese made diesel boat = death trap on a good day.
#2
suggesting that some aboard were technicians or staff officers.
Ehime Maru? Maybe it wasn't such a good idea when that know-it-all guest pulled rank on that seaman who recommended: "that might not be such a good idea, Sir.
#3
The Ming class is a reverse-engineered former Soviet Navy "Romeo" class diesel snorkel-equipped submarine. Most likely cause of death was a buildup of carbon monoxide from a poorly operating snorkel. It's happened at least once before in China, with the same class of boat. The Chinese People's Navy have two locally-designed vessels they use, and neither is noted for safety or a high level of operation. Submarines are one class of weapon where numbers can make up for poor design. Poor design in a submarine is usually fatal. This is just one such incident.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 11:50 Comments ||
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One of Tony Blair's closest foreign political allies has warned Britain and America that they may live to regret unleashing the "law of the jungle" in international relations when China becomes the dominant world power later this century. The Labour prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, told the Guardian that Washington and its allies had created a dangerous precedent by going to war without a UN resolution. "This is a century which is going to see China emerge as the largest economy, and usually with economic power comes military clout," she said. "In the world we are constructing, we want to know [that the system] will work whoever is the biggest and the most powerful."
She understood why Britain had stood beside the US, its closest ally. But New Zealand had taken a different view, because of the danger of setting a precedent for ignoring the UN. "It would be very easy for a country like New Zealand to make excuses and think of justifications for what its friends were doing to preserve freedom and democracy, but we would have to be mindful that we were creating precedents for others also to exit from multilateral decision making," she said. "I don't want precedents set, regardless of who is seen as the biggest kid on the block." Said one of the Lilliputians.
Ms Clark said the the damage to the UN had to be repaired to prevent the world returning to 19th century style anarchy in international relations, which could leave countries like New Zealand at the mercy of the great powers. Whole lot fewer people died in the 19th century compared to the 20th, Helen.
"New Zealand has always argued for the rights of small states," she said — one of her predecessors, the wartime Labour prime minister Peter Fraser, helped to write the UN's founding charter. "We saw the UN as a fresh start for a world trying to work out its problems together rather than a return to a 19th world where the great powers carved it up ... Who wants to go back to the jungle?" "Who wants to be ruled by the French and Belgians?"
The multilateral system had been damaged by the rifts over Iraq, but countries were now redoubling their efforts to cooperate in the Doha round of global trade talks. So let me get this straight: Helen thinks that because the end of the 21st century might belong to China, we should — now — honor "precedent" and refuse to deal with thugs and tyrants. That way when China gets its due it will have the examples of an ineffectual UN and multiple thugs getting their way. God forbid we actually show China what would happen if they cross the enlightened world.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/03/2003 02:22 am ||
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This "precedent" argument is meaningless. If I recall correctly, of the some two dozen major military conflicts that have occurred since WWII, only two- Korea in the 1950's and Desert Storm in 1991- have been sanctioned by the UN; and the only nation that has ever even sought UN sanction for military interventions has been the USA.
All those wars without UN blessing, and now this one somehow creates a "precedent"? Sorry, I don't buy it.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/03/2003 8:56 Comments ||
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Beijing is as jealous of maintaining its sovereignty as any country in the world. Explain to me why they're going to be impressed even more by international restraints then we are?
#3
Last year I was still tempted by the argument she makes: If the U.S. doesn't respect the Security Council, nobody will.
The thing is: the UN can't protect anyone without the U.S. And without the U.S. military force the Chinese (or whoever has a few missiles) wont respect what the SC says anyway.
Do we really think that China would refrain from attacking Taiwan because the SC tell her not to do that? No, it's the risk of a conflict with the U.S. that makes China behave.
Did China respect the UN when occupying Tibet? Did the Soviets respect the UN when occupying Afghanistan?
Maybe it's time for the "United Free Nations" with a Security Council that speaks with the voice of reason, but backed up by the power of all military forces of the free world. As long as dictators, thugs and terrorist nations succeed in dividing countries that share the same principles of freedom and democracy, only the U.S. can make a difference.
If the U.S., Europe, Australia and all the other democratic nations in the world formed one block, it would effectively contain China and spell doom to intolerant (islamocratic or not) regimes in the world. That's unipolarity at its best.
It's too bad that our petty interests stand in our way. It will (very unfortunately) need another catastrophic terrorist atack to make us realize what we have to do. Even then I'm not so optimistic.
But until we reach that point I'd rather have the power in Washington than anywhere else. The "multipolar world" France dreames about would doom Europe in the long run.
#4
The United Nations is a dead fish, and beginning to smell. Time to toss it out. It cannot be rescusitated in its current form. The "Coalition of the Willing" should be codified into a more responsive, multi-member organization of shared beliefs (rule of law, rights of individuals, personal property rights, etc.), shared institutions, and shared vision of the future. Such an organization can have a positive role in the building of world peace and respect of individual national sovereignty and national respect.
I doubt seriously a future that has China with the "largest economy, and usually with economic power comes military clout". China has reached a point where internal policies and the desire for external connections conflict so seriously that there will be massive internal upheavals within that nation, much like those that broke apart the old Soviet Union. While there may continue to be a "China", it won't be the one we see now.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/03/2003 12:21 Comments ||
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#5
The one situation that everyone (especially the folks in Commywood) refuses to entertain any discussion on is the fact that the avowed goal of both the lefties here and many of the governments of the world "represented" by the UN and the "Security Council" is the domination of the world by a one world socialist government which would naturally take its guidance and inspiration from governments like the ones in China, Cuba, or Venezuela.
The Lefties here foment at the mouth about the violation of their constitutional rights by the changes in goverment laws (to protect us from psychopathic illegal aliens - none of which has affected any of them, only folks likely to fly more planes into buildings) and the fact that their fellow citizens are voicing with their pocketbooks about how THEY feel about that socialist crap, but they won't talk about their real plans in the UN.
We on the right know what they are planning when they get control again. Forget people not buying your records or watching your movies. Think "worldwide politically correct speech laws" where what I am writing here will get me jailed for "diversity violations" for not wanting my kids to be taught how to be gay, that murdering babies is good citizenship, Christianity is an evil oppressive superstition, or that all white people need to be punished to pay for their genetic evils (or their failure to speak french or chinese).
Posted by: wayne ||
05/03/2003 12:39 Comments ||
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#6
TGA - at the risk of sounding ugly - the U.S. IS the United Free Nations. (with apologies to U.K., Poland, small assortment of others)
deTocqueville said as long as America is good she will be great. G.B. understands the concept, few else do.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/03/2003 14:14 Comments ||
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#7
Scott, the world is bigger than the U.S. And Germany is part of it, whatever Schroeder's ideas about the Iraq War might be.
#8
The Coalition went to war under the authority of UN resolutions. Unfortunately, a majority of States rejected the Coalition' interpretation of the resolutions. In my opinion,using force to deal with rogue States is a founding principle of the UN. And I could care less if the Krauts and Frogs disagree.
#9
TGA, I do not doubt that. And I actually believe that you may very well be a caring, sensitive person. But I do not trust your that your country's (or France's, Russia's, China's, Japan's, India's - to NOTHING of the Islamic states) leadership will do anything for anybody else that is not in their narrow self-interest.
Is our government better? Yes. With notable lapses. And both are expressions of our people. Cowboys with a good heart - mostly. Americans, generally, have a compassion for the underdog, that I find completely lacking elsewhere (with small exceptions). Isn't it interesting that the country with the most overwhelming military superiority in the history of the world also gives the most to charity?
I know our modern liberals give lipservice to compassion, (it wasn't always that way) but most Americans see thru that and as such have rejected their agenda. Only our media elites haven't caught on. Or are trying to reframe the argument.
I know there are other places in the world, but after reading your posts, you for one, ought to be dang glad there is a place like the U.S.A. A little gratitude from Europeans would be appropriate.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/03/2003 16:51 Comments ||
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#10
If by charity you mean giving aid to poor countries Germany is way ahead of the United States, Scott... at least with aid per inhabitant.
And yes I'm glad that there is a place like the USA. Did I ever say otherwise?
#11
TGA - you must be talking about gov't spending only. That's not the whole story. We give three times more as individuals than our official foreign aid (which is STILL more than Germany's) Our tax code encourages individual giving and politically, we have been burned by foreign aid.
Hey, we ain't looking for worship. Or tribute. Many in our place would be. Know what I mean?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/03/2003 19:09 Comments ||
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#12
Scott, I wouldn't have exact figures here. What I know is that Germany gives three times as much as the USA in official foreign aid (percentage of GDP). I believe you when you say that you make up for it with private donations although I know that Germans donate very liberally as well. Our tax code does encourage us as well. There may be less need for domestic charity in Germany because the welfare system is better.
#14
If China is around in a dozen years as it sits today, I'd be very surprised. China assumptions abound, if China wanted to be a world power it would begin acting like one, it would deal with n korea all by itself. China wont do that because its leadership does not have the Right Stuff, to be anything more than a bunch of thugs, grateful to be holding on at the table of larges being created due to rampant capitalism.
The world Needs lots of revolutions, but mostly it needs leaders of countries to face the facts. leftist ideology is bakrupt, Liberty is a necessity for Economic sustenance.
#15
Helen is just in a hissy fit because Howard was taking his rightful place at the head table today at Bush's ranch in Texas. Bush said that Admiral Kelly said that Australian Special Forces are "the best in the world".
She's realizing that NZ will be recorded in history as being not only absent, but obstructionist to the prevention of cruelty to children in paper-shredders for inappropriate comments made by their parents.
No seat at the winners table for you, witch. Deal with it.
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.
