Saudi Arabia is trying to dissuade its men from taking foreign wives through a media campaign highlighting the problems of mixed marriages, a Saudi newspaper reported. Al Riyadh daily said the interior and information ministries had teamed up to create a television program called "The Drawbacks and Problems of Marrying Foreigners" which aired Tuesday. "Itâs not true that marriages to foreigners are less costly or happier than marriages to our girls," the newspaper quoted an interior ministry official as saying. "Foreign women bring with them a lot of problems to the home and society." "They have the idea that they have rights, and stuff!"
Non-Saudi women often find it difficult to adapt to the restrictive social environment of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where women are not allowed to drive and must be veiled from head to foot in public. But steep dowries and restrictive social mores discourage many Saudi men from marrying their compatriots. We need to require that women who want to marry Saudi men watch a video on "The Drawbacks and Problems of Marrying Ultra-Conservative Turban-Wearing Wife Beaters".
"Yasss... Better not to marry infidels or other furrin wimmin. Stick with close relatives. A few buck teeth, some hemophilia, a few subnormal innalecks — small price to pay to maintain domestic harmony and the purity of the race..."
Posted by: Steve ||
07/09/2003 11:30:40 AM ||
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MULTAN: Shabab-e-Milli member Saad Khurshid Kanju told a youth meeting on Tuesday, âWe are against the humiliation of women and we have asked companies including multinationals to remove posters depicting them. We defaced those posters that were not removed.â Mr Kanju said cable operators should censor programmes that showed vulgar and indecent material by July 17. Mr Kanju said, âWe will protest against cinema owners, as well as video, DVD and CD makers and sellers who deal in obscene movies.â Defending the defacing of billboards in the city, Jamaat-e-Islami member Rao Zafar Iqbal said, âThe law does not allow anyone to spoil society through pornography and the use of women for business.â
But the law does allow you to deface other people's property? Some intricacy of shariah, no doubt...
The Shabab-e-Milli launched its mission against obscenity on June 6 at Gaddafi Chowk. The police arrested 27 Shabab-e-Milli activists for setting a circus on fire and defacing billboards, but they were released on bail.
If there's no punishment for it, where's the incentive to stop?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/09/2003 15:46 ||
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LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leaders said on Tuesday a Kashmiri engineer who has been missing for a month was kidnapped by the FBI and this was a âhumiliationâ for Pakistan. "Engineer" is the Pak term for "explosives expert."
The engineer, Ahsan Aziz, was last seen at a mosque in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir. JI leaders Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar and Azhar Iqbal Ahsan MPA said in a joint press statement they were angry and saddened by the FBIâs interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan. They said even mosques were no longer safe from the FBI. Musta been the FBI. The guy couldnât possibly have been kidnapped and slaughtered by fellow Islamists. Itâs not like they canât control themselves when they get fired up. Not like they canât control their impulse to cut peopleâs heads off...
They said it was a matter of âdeep concernâ that the FBI has started operating at the base camp of the freedom movement in Azad Kashmir. The American agencyâs activities were a violation of human rights and an attempt to sabotage the Kashmir movement. They demanded the government prevent FBI agents from operating in Pakistan and take practical steps towards the recovery of Mr Aziz. FBI guys, is it? Operating right there at the terrorist camps? Well, yeah. Iâd call that a violation of human rights if I had a turban...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2003 3:38:24 PM ||
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ISLAMABAD: At least 35 policemen were killed and 14 injured in targeted attacks in the last two months, a record in Pakistanâs history, Daily Times has learnt. One deputy inspector general of police (DIG), one sub inspector (SI), two head constables, 11 constables, seven policemen and 13 police trainees were killed. In one tragic incident, unidentified assailants killed Sibi DIG Abdul Aziz Bullo and four policemen in an ambush on June 9. They were on their way to offer their condolence to the families of 13 police trainees killed a day earlier in Saryab, Quetta.
Doesn't that insult the old injury?
Two police officials were killed and one was injured by unidentified criminals in Taxila on May 2.
Two police constables were killed and 5 others were injured in a police encounter with robbers in Mirpurkhas on May 2.
One police constable was injured and two robbers were killed in an encounter in Lahore on May 3.
Three policemen and six robbers were killed, while five policemen and one woman were injured in an encounter at Tando Adam on May 4. Police also recovered a rocket launcher, two hand grenades, three AK-47 assault rifles, one rifle and 2,010 bullets.
An encounter between a police party and proclaimed offenders resulted in the killing of a head constable and a fisherman in Rajanpur on June 19.
A clash between Elite Force and criminals resulted in a manâs death and injuries to a police constable in Muzaffargarh on June 20.
Criminals shot dead Head Constable Haleem and his relative in Chakiwara Police Station in Karachi on June 20.
Unidentified criminals killed a police constable in Larkana on June 21.
A criminal riding a motorcycle with âpoliceâ inscribed on the number plate killed a SI and a constable on patrolling duty in Gujrat on June 22.
Unidentified assailants killed 2 police constables and took away their rifles in Karachi on June 24.
Unknown robbers killed two police constables of Model Colony Police Station, Malir (Karachi) on June 24.
Unidentified criminals, reportedly Bugtis, kidnapped a man and took his vehicle and killed a police constable while injuring two civilians in Rajanpur on June 25.
"Naw!" the drunk said. "I ain't got a problem..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/09/2003 15:28 ||
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TOBA TEK SINGH: Two women surrendered to the police and confessed killing three men and two women at 3am on Tuesday. Abida Parveen and Kausar Parveen told SHO Riaz Wahla that they killed the five people because they were running a brothel. The two women also handed over their weapons, an eight mm rifle and a 30-bore pistol. They said they had to kill them after failing to convince their victims to stop running the brothel. Local police suspect the two women are protecting the real murderer.
"They won't do what we say, the brazen huzzies!"
"I'll get my 30-bore!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/09/2003 15:09 ||
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SHANDOOR: The law enforcing agencies on Tuesday foiled a terrorist plan to blow up Shandoor festivalâs VIPâs enclosure at the inaugural ceremony. âSix time bombs were planted near the enclosure where dignitaries from abroad and top Pakistani leadership was supposed to sit for the opening ceremony today (Wednesday),â a police official said. According to the local administration, the bomb disposal unit searched the festivalâs premises and found six Russian-made time bombs planted in the VIP enclosure. The dignitaries were British royal family members and US ambassador Nancy Powell.
Oh, wouldn't that have made a splash?
The local administration was satisfied with the security arrangements and announced that all the programmes for the festival would be followed without change. The law enforcing agencies are trying to find out who planted the bombs,â said a police official.
I think it would be a fine idea to find out who planted them and kill them. But my patience with Pakistan ran out sometime in early 2002, so I guess my opinion shouldn't count.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
07/09/2003 15:04 ||
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Mahdi Saleh has been looking over his shoulder for weeks, ever since his name began popping up in red graffiti threatening death for the tens of thousands of informants Saddam Hussein and his Baath party relied on to enforce a maniacal control over Iraqâs population. "With the blessing of God, we will start the campaign to execute the Baathist monkeys," reads the Arabic scrawled on a wall in Baghdadâs Aden Square. A short distance away, the warning continues with a list of several names, including Salehâs. "These are the criminal traitors," it says. Tens of thousands of people like Saleh have gone into hiding or are watching their backs since the fall of the regime in April. Hundreds have been killed by vigilantes taking revenge. Tap, tap, nope.
Sounds like ol' Mahdi's toast. Or maybe pita...
At Salehâs pharmacy, his wife, Nisreen, sits behind the counter waiting for customers in the afternoon heat. She insists he never informed for Saddamâs regime and says she doesnât know who wrote the graffiti or who would want to hurt her husband.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't him."
"My husband is a good man and everybody loves him," says Nisreen, who is five months pregnant with the coupleâs fifth child. "People see that we are well off and we do not need the help of others, so they envy us and try to write these things because there is no government." Saleh, a former midlevel Baathist official in Baghdad, has not gone into hiding, but he is rarely seen in the streets. Residents of his community say he was an informant.
"I don't like crooks. If I did like crooks, I wouldn't like stool pigeons. And if I did like stool pigeons, I still wouldn't like you!"
In the days after the fall of Baghdad, looters gutted Saddamâs Mukhabarat secret intelligence service, as well as the local Baath party offices where many informantsâ names were kept. Piles of intelligence files on those jailed, tortured and executed by Saddam have been returned to victims or their survivors. Many include the names of friends, colleagues, teachers â even relatives â that spied for the regime.
A bit inconvenient, that? Perhaps fatal?
The question of how to punish such a large portion of the populace is a difficult one. Some informed to get ahead, some for the money and others because it was the only way to survive. Some have suggested a truth and reconciliation commission could help Iraq get over its bloody past. Certainly, there are not enough jails to punish everyone. At the Committee of Free Prisoners, an independent group representing Iraqis arrested under Saddamâs regime, workers are sifting through 8 million secret government files found in the basement of a shopping center shortly after Baghdad fell. The groupâs director general, Abul-Fattah al-Edreesy, says the committee is making a list of informantsâ names but will not release them for fear of a bloodbath. "Our goal is to rebuild Iraq, not tear it down," said al-Edreesy, who was jailed and tortured in 1986, when he was just 16. "We donât want to act like animals. We will turn the names over to an elected Iraqi government."
"They can kill any of them their neighbors don't bump off..."
The aging documents, many detailing interrogations and executions, are piled chest high in room after room of the committeeâs offices. Each tells a story of betrayal and brutality. In one, a man informs on his brother, who is later executed. In another, 49 Shiite Muslims accused of membership in a banned group are put to death on the word of a single, unnamed informant. The United Nations is investigating the alleged killings of at least 300,000 Iraqis during Saddamâs 23-year reign. It will never be known exactly how many people informed on their countrymen, but Iraqis say they felt the regime had eyes everywhere. "They made us suspicious of everyone around us," said al-Edreesy. "They made us think that if there were 24 million Iraqis, then there were 24 million informants."
Which could also be true...
Those accused of collaboration are now running scared. "I am afraid for my life and for the lives of my children," said Col. Raad al-Delemy, a former member of the criminal investigation police, who was shot four times while walking home in early June. Three officers from his unit have been killed. Al-Delemyâs unit was one of the few not immediately called back into service because of its alleged ties to the regime, though he insists he never informed on anyone or dealt with political prisoners.
"I never liked him. I only joined the party for the business contacts..."
His family is hiding outside the capital, and he briefly emerged to get his back pay. "Yes, we were linked with the regime, but we were low level. The national intelligence services were much more important than us," he said.
"Shoot them, instead! We were only small fry! All we did was pull the trigger! They made the decisions!"
Until a government is in place and institutions exist to deal with suspected informants, victims and their survivors face their own moral test. Many urge taking matters into their own hands. On July 3, a weekly Shiite newspaper, Al-Ressala, published a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for informants and others who cooperated with the regime to be killed, have their limbs chopped off or be exiled. "Shame in life and torture in the afterlife" for the collaborators, read the fatwa by Kadhim al-Haeri, an Iraqi Shiite cleric who lives in Iran.
And since he was out of the line of fire, he's a disinterested party, of course...
Victims say many groups are willing to help them take revenge. "Many organizations have made contact with us and asked us for the names of the informants so they can execute them," said Qasim Mejali Hashim, whose brothers Sabah and Bassem were hanged in 1997 after five childhood friends secretly taped them making anti-Saddam statements. Hashim, surrounded by his dead brothersâ wives and children, says he knows where the informants are, but refuses to reveal their names. "I could kill them now, but I want them tried and found guilty in front of everyone," he said. "I want the entire community to see what they did. Then they can be executed." Works for me.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/09/2003 3:20:21 PM ||
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The following account is the reason we should stay out of Liberia.
A bad man in Africa
By Anthony Daniels
(Filed: 29/06/2003)
Profile: Charles Taylor
Few men in recent history have wrought as much misery and destruction as Charles Taylor, the elected President of Liberia. His ambition and greed have caused not only the displacement of a million of his own countrymen out of a population of a mere three million, and brought about the death of a tenth of the population, but he has provoked civil war in two neighbouring states, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. Now his country is mostly under the control of two rebel movements that are besieging the capital, Monrovia, and it is only a matter of time before he is overthrown.
At the beginning of this month, Taylor was indicted for crimes against humanity by an international court sitting in Sierra Leone, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. This will hardly have encouraged him to stand down as President, as he had shortly before agreed to do, to allow the setting-up of an interim government. Now he wants to fight to the finish, however much bloodshed this might entail. At the age of 55 he still relishes the trappings of power and likes to be seen on thrones in golden robes. He has at least one wife, Jewel, who lives in the Ivory Coast. His daughter, Edena, came to public attention two years ago, when aged 13, she was publicly caned at her school by her father for indiscipline.
Taylorâs career cannot be understood without some knowledge of Liberian history. He was the third of 15 children of Americo-Liberian parents: descendants of the freed American slaves who established the Liberian republic, and who dominated Liberia politically and economically for 133 years from its foundation until 1980, despite being only 3 per cent of the population.
He was sent to the United States by his father for university education and obtained a degree in economics from Bentley College in Massachusetts. To pay for his extravagant partying, he worked on the production line of a toy factory called Sweetheart Plastics. He was also involved in Liberian student politics of a radical nature, influenced by Marxist and Pan-African ideas, and at one time, advocated burning down the Liberian embassy in Washington.
Back in Liberia, in 1980 the semi-literate Master-Sergeant Samuel Doe led a violent coup in which the former President, William Tolbert, was disembowelled in his bed. Seeing an opportunity for real power, Taylor returned to Liberia, where he was appointed head of the General Services Agency, the new governmentâs procurement organisation. This gave him not only cabinet rank but immense powers of patronage and possibilities for personal enrichment.
Doe came to power claiming to be a representative of the tribal people of Liberia, in opposition to their colonial masters, the Americo-Liberians; but, in practice, he soon started to favour members of his own tribe, the Krahn. This led him to conflict with other leaders of the 1980 coup, one of whom, Thomas Quiwonkpah, a member of the Gio tribe, led an invasion from the Ivory Coast to overthrow Doe. Quiwonkpah nearly succeeded, but was captured in Monrovia, and his corpse, according to witnesses, was dragged through the streets and parts of it were eaten by Doeâs men. There were brutal reprisals in Nimba County, where many of Quiwonkpahâs fellow tribesmen lived.
Taylor was believed to have been sympathetic to Quiwonkpah and, realising the danger he was in, he fled to the United States. Doe, then an ally of the US, claimed that Taylor had embezzled $900,000 from the General Services Agency, and Taylor was arrested in America at the request of Doe, who wanted him extradited to Liberia. He spent 15 months in a Massachusetts prison until, with four petty criminals, he sawed through his bars and escaped. No efforts were made to recapture him. His lawyer was Ramsey Clarke, a former Attorney-General, which is indicative of Taylorâs ability to form valuable connections.
On his return to Africa, Taylor became the head of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, dedicated to overthrowing Doe. He received the backing of Col Gadaffi, who was trying to extend his influence in Africa, as well as Blaise Campaore, the President of Burkina Faso, and Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the President of the Ivory Coast.
In 1989, Taylor launched an invasion of Liberia from the Ivory coast and he soon came to control the entire country except the capital, Monrovia. A multinational West African military force prevented Taylor from taking the capital, but Doe was captured by a former ally of Taylorâs, the self-styled Brigadier-General Field-Marshal Prince Y Johnson. Doe was stripped naked and filmed having his ears cut off with a knife while Johnson, drinking beer, interrogated him as to the numbers of his bank accounts. Doe died soon afterwards, and the video of his torture was sold in large numbers in West Africa.
Taylorâs forces included children, who were often dressed in bizarre costumes and blond wigs. Frequently under the influence of drugs, they were notable for their childish brutality and up to 200,000 people were killed in this phase of the war. A stalemate ensued, with an "official" government installed in Monrovia, while Taylor controlled the rest of the country and ruled from a town called Gbarnga. He was able to amass a huge fortune through the continued sale of Liberiaâs plentiful natural resources such as diamonds, iron ore and timber..
Eventually, after about 15 failed peace conferences, elections were brokered in 1996, and the Liberian population realised that Taylor would seek the presidency by other means if they did not vote for him. Wanting an end to the war at any price, they voted for Taylor. This did not satisfy his ambitions, however. By the time he reached power, Monrovia was not an auspicious place from which to bestride the world. It had been more comprehensively destroyed than any capital in the world. Rubbish accumulated on the beaches, every important building was damaged by gunfire and thoroughly looted, the streets were potholed and no public services worked. A brief interregnum of reconstruction has been followed by another orgy of destruction.
Still theoretically a Pan-African and in practice a kleptomaniac who pillaged the wealth of the nation, Taylor attempted to install puppets in Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast by the same means that he had achieved power in Liberia. Most notoriously he backed and armed the collectively psychopathic Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, whose murderous atrocities startled the world, and for whose arms he paid with the diamonds of Sierra Leone.
Now he is getting his comeuppance. In 1999, a rebel movement called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), backed by Guinea and based in Sierra Leone, invaded Liberia, using the same kind of tactics and soldiery that Taylor used. And the government of the Ivory Coast, exasperated by Taylorâs interference, backed the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (Model). These rebels have now all but conquered Liberia, and Taylor faces the same fate as Samuel Doe, 13 years ago. But the triumph of Lurd and Model will not bring peace to Liberia: without clear leadership, they have no policy beyond killing anyone who might be a supporter of Taylor.
Taylor is not only a war criminal (he once attempted to sue The Times for suggesting that he was a cannibal, though the action was eventually struck out because of his unwillingness to appear in a London court), but he is also a Baptist preacher. Accused in the United Nations of being a gun-runner and a diamond smuggler, he dressed up in an angelâs white robe and spoke at a mass prayer meeting. Accused by a journalist of being a murderer, he stated that Jesus was also accused of being a murderer in his time. It appears, however, that he will soon receive his earthly reward.
Anthony Daniels is the author of Monrovia Mon Amour published by John Murray
Economists know that the quality of political and economic institutions exerts a major effect on the growth and prosperity of nations. In general, we know that the greater the economic freedom, the greater the political freedom, and the greater the prosperity for all involved. The good news is that economic freedom can be measured.
The recently released "Economic Freedom of the World" report presents an economic freedom index, which uses 38 different components to rate 123 countries on a zero-to-ten basis. Government expenditures as a share of the economy, marginal tax rates, independence of the judiciary, tariff rates, non-tariff trade restraints, and price stability are among the components integrated into the index.
To get a high economic freedom rating, a country must rely primarily on voluntary exchange and markets rather than taxes and government spending to allocate goods and resources. It must also follow stable monetary policies, avoid regulations that limit entry into markets, and establish a legal regime that provides for the evenhanded enforcement of contracts and protection of property rights.
I wonder if the ability to charge interest on loans and show chicks on billboards are among their criteria?
Hong Kong continues to rate as the worldâs freest economy. But it is followed closely by Singapore, the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, and the Netherlands round out the top 10. The rankings of other large economies include Germany, 20th; Japan, 26th ; Italy, 35th; France, 44th; Mexico, 69th; India, 73rd; Brazil, 81st; China, 100th and Russia, 112th. Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe are ranked the lowest among the 123 countries. However, a number of other nations for which data are not available, such as North Korea and Cuba, may have even less economic freedom.
African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and former socialist countries dominate the bottom third of the rankings. There are, however, some interesting exceptions within these regions. Botswana (26th) is easily the highest ranked African country. Among the Middle Eastern countries, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain rate the highest. Chile (20th), El Salvador and Panama (tied for 23rd), and Costa Rica (tied for 26th) rank highest among the Latin American countries. Estonia at 16th stands out among the former centrally planned economies.
If the leaders of a country wonât grow its economy, then they need to murder (Zimbobwe), starve (NKOR), oppress (Cuba), lower the IQ of (any country witha Madrassah), or run off its folks (Mexico). I never get why growth is so scary to some folks. It must be some form of math anxiety. Maybe MoDo can write a witty screed column on it.
While the ratings and rankings during a given year are interesting, what matters is the maintenance of sound institutions and policies over an extended period of time. Economies that are persistently free will attract more investment and utilize their resources more efficiently. As a result, they will grow more rapidly and achieve higher levels of income. To investigate this proposition, we analyzed the economic freedom data for 1980-2000. The economic freedom ratings were continuously available (at five-year intervals) throughout these two decades for 99 countries. The investment rate of countries during 1980-2000 was closely linked with long-term economic freedom: Countries with more economic freedom attracted more investment. The investment rate of the top quintile of countries in terms of mean economic freedom ratings during 1980-2000 averaged 23.9 percent of GDP over the two decades, compared to 19.3 percent for the lowest rated quintile of countries.
The differences in terms of foreign direct investment are even more dramatic. For the top quintile, the annual foreign direct investment per worker averaged $2657 compared to $52 for the bottom quintile. Thus, the inflow of investment per worker into the freest quintile of economies was 50 times the figure for the least-free quintile.
Let me see if I get this straight. If the local government doesnât rip folks off, people are more likely to invest. And I thought all we needed was guerilla investment tactics.
Not only did the persistently free economies invest more, the productivity of their investment was higher. The productivity of investment in economies with an economic freedom rating of 7.0 or higher was 13.6 percent higher than for economies with economic freedom ratings of between 5.0 and 7.0, and 30 percent more than for those with mean economic freedom ratings of less than 5.0.
When both the impact on the level of investment and the productivity of resource-use are considered, our research indicates that a sustained one-unit increase in economic freedom enhances a countryâs long-term annual growth of per capita GDP by between 1.0 and 1.5 percentage points. This indicates, for example, that countries like India and Poland with economic freedom ratings around 6.0 could increase their long-term annual growth by between 1.0 and 1.5 percentage points if they adopted policies that pushed their economic freedom rating up to 7.0, about the same level as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Over a period of 20 or 25 years, increases in growth of this magnitude would exert a huge effect on income levels. Modern economic growth is primarily about investment and innovation, and economic freedom fuels both. Among the 26 countries with economic freedom ratings of less than 5.0 during 1980-2000, only Israel was able to achieve a 2000 per capita GDP of more than $10,000. In contrast, among the 15 countries with mean 1980-2000 economic freedom ratings of 7.0 or higher, only Taiwan had a 2000 per capita GDP of less than $20,000.
In the movie, "Field of Dreams," a voice called out, "If you build it, he will come." The same might be said of economic freedom. If a country builds institutions consistent with economic freedom, investors and entrepreneurs will come and economic growth will result. The sooner policymakers learn this lesson, the more prosperous the people of the world will be.
JENIN â Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man in a West Bank raid on Wednesday and Egyptian envoys began talks with Palestinian militant leaders to bolster a cease-fire critical to a new peace process with Israel. The U.S.-backed "road map" plan is troubled both by militant threats to abandon the truce and high-level discontent within the Palestiniansâ mainstream Fatah faction over moderate Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbasâ performance in peace talks. Neither of which is the Israeliâs problem
Military sources said the Palestinian was killed after he opened fire on soldiers arresting a wanted man in an area of the northern West Bank from which Islamist militants sent a suicide bomber into Israel on Monday, violating the 10-day-old truce. Bam! Die Zionist pigs! Ow Hey! that hurt!
Senior security officials from Egypt, which helped broker the truce, met Palestinian faction chiefs in Gaza on how to preserve the pact amid warnings from militants that it would collapse unless Israel frees thousands of prisoners. Then itâs gonna collapse? Hokay
"The Egyptians are here to calm things down and help the truce endure," said a Palestinian official after the delegation began a meeting with Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Y'see, the ceasefire, which is only temporary, is gonna collapse unless they get their demands met, even though the demands aren't in the road map. That's all Israel's fault. Damn them Jews for their perfidy!
Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces entered the village of Burqin close to Jenin before dawn, burst into a Palestinian home and arrested a 22-year-old militant.
"Drop the high explosives, Mahmoud! Y'r under arrest!"
The sources said that moments later soldiers fired at the neighboring home of the militantâs 27-year-old brother, who they said was killed while looking out a window. They also said the manâs wife was shot in the head and seriously wounded. Thought they said he opened fire in paragraph 3?
He was looking out the window to aim, apparently...
About 2,000 demonstrators marched through Jenin afterward holding up photographs of relatives arrested by Israeli troops in raids. "No truce without the release of all prisoners in Israeli jails, without exception!" they chanted. President Bush unfurled the "road map" at a peace summit on June 4 and Palestinian faction leaders declared a truce, but some local militant cells refuse to abide by it.
Please!... My heart! Sudden suprises like that... Quick, Ethel! My pills!
Mondayâs suicide attack, in which an Israeli woman was killed in her home, was the first since the truce was announced.
"I mean, hey! What's one little corpse, huh?"
Internal Fatah opposition confronting Abbas arose largely from his inability to persuade Israel to free up to 8,000 prisoners. It has agreed to release a few hundred but Abbas needs many more out to reduce the popular appeal of militants loath to abandon an uprising against Israel begun in 2000. Weighing in to shore up the moderate Palestinian premier, the United States planned to provide direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority. "(Bush) is confident in his leadership and looks forward to continuing to work with him," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said during a South Africa visit by the president.
"At least until the Paleos throw him out or render him totally ineffective. Or bump him off."
A senior administration official played down Abbasâs threat as part of "internal Palestinian machinations," saying it was "sometimes their way of doing business."
He's referring to bluff, bluster, threat, then kill somebody, demand more than the other side agreed to and do less than your side agreed to, if anything at all...
Israeli media said John Wolf, Bushâs envoy overseeing steps on the "road map," was pressing the Israeli government to speed up prisoner releases to help Abbas see off hardline foes. Israeli officials dismissed the reports and sharpened calls on Abbas to dismantle militant Palestinian groups, as mandated by the "road map" peace plan envisaging a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005. Abbas has shied from such a crackdown, fearing civil war.
Kind of like Ein el-Hellhole, only bigger...
Israel has said members of militant groups and prisoners who committed or orchestrated attacks on Israelis would not go free. Abbas submitted his resignation from Fatahâs Central Committee in the wake of demands that he quit as premier.
Golly. Wonder who orchestrated the "We want Yasser!" demonstrations?
In a letter to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Abbas asked the longtime Fatah leader to outline how to proceed with confidence-building steps charted by the "road map." Putting Arafat on the spot? He doesnât have any ideas, never did. Just give us land/power/money or the attacks continue
"If (Abbas) rejects their ideas, he will resign as prime minister," a senior official said. This is a non-starter. Israel will NEVER release all the prisoners. NEVER. So the truce is over. kill all the honchos that poke their heads out: Paleo Whack-A-Moleâ¢
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2003 10:29:04 AM ||
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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.
