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Missed, dammit! IAF rockets Sheikh Yassin
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
3 00:00 Peter [] 
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9 00:00 Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire [] 
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5 00:00 True German Ally [] 
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3 00:00 Sade [] 
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Fun with income toys
Don Sensing has a link to the Global Rich List, which is a toy in which you can poke in your annual income and learn that you're the 34,687,491st richest person in the world or something. He then goes on to discuss Tommy Slush and his family:
He lived with his wife and two daughters in a mobile home in a trailer park. Tommy has had a steady job for thirty years. His employer praised Tommy's work ethic as one of the strongest he has ever seen. Tommy often worked double shifts as an assistant pressman at Ambrose Printing and Office Supply. He makes four hundred and twenty-five dollars per week. His wife and oldest daughter work also.

The Slush family is part of the "working poor," people who are one step away from poverty. The working poor don't ever sit in fifty dollar seats at Titans games or take weekend trips down to Destin. For Tommy Slush and his family, a dinner at Ponderosa is a major excursion that they can afford maybe three or four times per year.

They are not on welfare. They just don't have a savings account because they have to spend all they make to pay for their home, their food, their clothing and their transportation.

If you input Tommy's $22,100 (1999) annual income on the Global Rich List page you discover that he is in the top 6.8% richest people in the world and his income ranks 408,329,049 in the world.
The U.S. proverty line for a family of four was a cash income less than $18,104 last year. I poked in that figure, of course, and found that it puts American po' folks with poverty line income among the 8.51% richest people in the world. 5,488,946,015 (just about 5.5 billion) people are worse off.

'Splain to me again why imposing our way of life is bad for the rest of the world?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 16:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
'Splain to me again why imposing our way of life is bad for the rest of the world?

Because the socialists think it's a zero-sum game; if we're rich, somebody else must be poor because there's a finite amount of wealth, so if we export our way of life and some other country's people get richer, others would by definition have to get poorer. And it might be the socialists (horrors!).

What those self-centered idiots never understand is that wealth is not finite, and can be created in any country that can fling off its socialist (or worse) ways and embrace capitalism.

Of course, I'm sure it's also that our way of life is the result of much less government intrusion than any other country in the world (though we have way too much), and we can't have that, can we? The proles not accepting whatever their betters decide is good for them? Heaven forfend!
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/06/2003 17:01 Comments || Top||

#2  "You are in the top 0.719% richest people in the world.
There are 5,956,812,435 people poorer than you. "

Fine, so is this put on by my ex-wife's attorney?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 17:01 Comments || Top||

#3  "Life is not a zero-sum game."

"I have seen so far because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."
If everyone were to get knee-capped, where would we be?
Posted by: Dishman || 09/06/2003 17:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I read a science fiction novel by Lloyd Biggle, I believe, called "The World Menders". There was a statement in there that made me think, long and hard: "Democracy imposed from without is the sheerest form of Tyrany".

People have the God-given right to choose the type of government they live under (read the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence - it's pretty specific). Any government imposed upon them, regardless of what it's called, is tyranny. Of course, people also have to accept the realities of the government they choose. This is where France, Germany, and all the other Socialist states fail: they try to protect the people from the consequences of their own behavior. That can't last forever - eventually, the house of cards will collapse, and the entire world - at least for those caught in it - turns upside down.

What we're trying to do in Iraq is to walk the fine line in the middle - "encouraging" a specific outcome without actually imposing it with our own strength. That's a tricky business. It's also very easy to slip over the edge, either way. If we manage to achieve what we hope, it will be a good thing for both Iraq and the United States, and a bad thing for all the "We've got to do it for you, because you can't" idiots in the world.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 19:27 Comments || Top||

#5  In the Navy I saw many poor people the world over but especially in South America. Only the homeless and a few others in our country are really in poverty.
Defining non-poor people as poor is a political strategy by those who would benefit from creating ficticious voter blocks like the supposed latino voter block.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 19:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Super Hose your comments got me to thinking. During embassy duty I was playing tennis and hit the ball out of the compound. One of the local kids ran up, grabbed the ball and took off. I was all fired up to chase him and get it back when my buddy stopped me and said the kid would sell it and his family would eat for a week. I threw alot of gear over the wall after that. . .

We are rich beyond measure here.
Posted by: doc8404 || 09/06/2003 22:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes, let's input Tommy's income into the site, but not his wife who is also working???? I didn't read the article, was she a SAHM? How much does she make? If their oldest is working, they can't save anything now??? Do they smoke or drink????

Ahhh, if we had to include his wife's income, they'd be even higher on the list.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/07/2003 3:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Hmm wonder if they can afford medical insurance.For some reason I doubt it.
Posted by: raptor || 09/07/2003 7:34 Comments || Top||


Yoko Ono to repeat naked appeal for world peace
For the first time in nearly 40 years, Yoko Ono is to perform one of her art "happenings" in which she invites her audience to cut off her clothing until she is naked on stage. At the age of 70, she is to repeat the protest in Paris later this month because of growing political tension in the world.
Please take me now, Lord!... No! Wait! Take her!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 12:01 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Six inches to the left and Mark David Chapman would have been a hero.
Posted by: Raj || 09/06/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Why, oh why couldn't Chapman have used the last round on her and spared us this?
Posted by: Steve || 09/06/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Does anyone on Rantburg chart the rate of political tension in the world? If the chart is presented showing absolutely no effect for her art piece, maybe someone can convince another artist with a more attractive art piece to try.

The updated art piece might be popular like the whon Britney Spears/ Madonna thing.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Old, tired, time-worn, threadbare leftist sentimentalism and symbolism.

Perhaps Ono could just burn the ganja and stay home watching ESPN (Or at least O)instead of selling us a discredited ideal.
Posted by: badanov || 09/06/2003 12:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Yoko's about as much an "artist" as I am. Ain't it about time for her to find some more unreleased Lennon tracks, or some of those putrid pieces of "art" he used to scribble? She must be down to her last 10 or 12 million. Might want to replenish the supply.
The ultimate groupie.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't do it, Yoko!

Ethel, my pills---Nooo! Not the Viagra, Ethel, the nitroglycerine tablets you boob.
No Ethel, I was not making remarks about your breasts.
No Ethel, I am not calling you an idiot.
PLEEZE, Ethel, dear, the pills!
Ahh, uhhhhhhh, its the big one! No Ethel...
It's a big heart attack..........you boob.....
......................
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/06/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Any actual takers on her little invitation should immediately be put in jail for promoting indecency. ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/06/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#8  The Anti-Bush groups will gather around her and rip her clothing off.

Then they'll burn into ash from the horrendous site. Thus, stupidity kills itself. It is the way of things.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:33 Comments || Top||

#9  AAAAck! A burning bush just told me that I'd be turned into a piller of salt if I looked at this "happening".
Posted by: snellenr || 09/06/2003 18:51 Comments || Top||

#10  AAAAck! A burning bush just told me that I'd be turned into a piller of salt if I looked at this "happening".
Man, I don't need any outside help to know I don't want any part of THIS travesty! Or is that transvestity? Can't remember... Something called oldtimer's disease - caused by looking at old people without clothes. Makes you want to forget!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 19:32 Comments || Top||

#11  gads! another wrinkle to the naked appeasers of the world.
Posted by: rbr || 09/07/2003 0:01 Comments || Top||


Criminal Mastermind Jailed For 176th Time
A Boulder County man was back in familiar surroundings Friday — the county jail. Jeffrey Allan Pittman was behind bars after allegedly stealing a woman's bags while she was sitting on the Boulder County Courthouse lawn along the Pearl Street Mall. It is his 176th arrest, according to criminal records. The alleged crime occurred the day after Pittman was given an early release from the county jail. Pittman has a 20-year criminal history in Boulder and Longmont. His convictions range from indecent exposure and assault to theft and drunken driving.
I think all the arrests were for stupidity. Perhaps Mr. Pittman should consider another line of work? Or are we going for a record here?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess none of his crimes were considered "major" enough to envoke Colorado's "three strikes and you're out" law that puts career criminals away for life. Personally, I think this guy is a candidate for the criminal wing of Colorado State Mental Hospital.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 10:44 Comments || Top||

#2  He's what cops refer to as "walking job security".
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 11:19 Comments || Top||

#3  The TV show "Cops" has repeatedly lobbied to keep him on the streets including providing funds for legal assistance. The show's producers considers his freedom as vital to their ability to provide continuous programming featuring action police enforcement.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Fox should start a reality show called "Losers" and follow guys like this around. Stevey could be his sidekick.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:30 Comments || Top||

#5  If he's a Master Mind, how come he's been caught so many times? Seems like Perpetual Amateur is a better label.
Posted by: Dar || 09/06/2003 13:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Those crimes were the equivalent of foul balls, so he's still 0 and 2 on the count with the DA.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/06/2003 13:49 Comments || Top||

#7  This guy is probably what keeps the DA in office.

" And I will continue to arrest Jeffrey Allan Pittman until he learns his lesson! "

Cue the applause by mindless idiots.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Rantburgers have no idea what Boulder is like. We here in Colorado don't call it The People's Republic of Bounder for nothing. It's home to Colorado's largest university (called, oddly enough, Colorado University, and has buffalos (virtually extinct except in private reserves) as its mascot). It's also home to the majority of the state's looney left, as well as scores of academia. Dianne DeGette is their hero (Pat Schroder used to be, but she finally got tired of being the Poster Child for Looniness).

If it's "victim-oriented", if it's "screw the establishment", it's Boulder.

We've offered Boulder to California, BTW, but they said one Berkley was enough.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 19:39 Comments || Top||

#9  And we don't want it in Wisconsin either, we've got Madison already
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire || 09/06/2003 21:14 Comments || Top||


Pa. to Host Nude Volleyball Tournament
BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (Really!) -- As many as 1,700 spectators and participants are expected to gather this weekend as volleyball buffs play in the buff.
Can I get tickets from Ticketron?
The 105-acre White Thorn Lodge nudist park in South Beaver Township, Beaver County, will host the 33rd annual Volleyball Superbowl on Saturday and Sunday. Nude & Natural magazine once called it "the most unique event in nudism."
"Next to Trixie coming out of the swimming pool, of course..."
Some members of the nudist park admit a few of the spectators who will attend the tournament will do so to take in the sights. But event organizers said the tournament's a seriously competitive event. The competition is divided into six skill levels, from novice to college caliber. "And people do dive. Even on the asphalt courts," White Thorn spokesman Scott Coatsworth said. "The ones who know how to do it don't even get skinned."
"Herb, you don't know how to dive on asphalt, do you?"
"Ow."
Jeff Poland, of Canton, Ohio, plans to attend the tournament for the fifth consecutive year. He plays volleyball with other - clothed - leagues, but believes nude volleyball games have their benefits, such as friendlier players.
"Is that a banana in yer... Ummm... No. It's not a banana."
"You don't sweat as much," he said. "You don't get overheated because you don't have clothes keeping the heat in."
"Of course, you don't get to wear a jock strap, either. Why, my testicles used to be less than a foot long. Wouldja believe it?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "White Thorn Lodge" doesn't exactly strike me as an appropriate name for a nudist camp, if you know what I mean...
Posted by: snellenr || 09/06/2003 11:04 Comments || Top||

#2  BEAVER County? Does anyone at all think before they schedule things?
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "Some members of the nudist park admit a few of the spectators who will attend the tournament will do so to take in the sights"

the rest see it for the articles
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 12:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Small small world: I grew up in Beaver County, local paper called the Beaver Valley Times. One summer I ran deliveries for a local lumber company, and some nudie was building a deck at White Thorn, so I had to go out there. Lotsa late-model boomers and retirees, like the evenly-tanned sixty-year-old woman at the gate. Ugh. I noticed the tennis court but this is the first time I've heard about the volleyball.
The adults were one thing, but there was something wrong about all those little kids running around with nary a stitch.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt || 09/06/2003 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Guess Beaver Falls is not just famous as the hometown of Joe Namath anymore.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:27 Comments || Top||

#6  "all those little kids running around with nary a stitch."

I bet the FBI is lined up outside just waiting too pick up all those child molesters attending the event.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Now, me, I just go to look at the tatoos...
Posted by: Fred || 09/06/2003 16:48 Comments || Top||

#8  And we all know WHERE those tatoos are.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:54 Comments || Top||

#9  I bet jumping nude keeps the spikes at the net to a minimum
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 17:21 Comments || Top||

#10  That depends how you physacally look. If you're hot, you'll jump like mad and be cheered. Then you'll get laid by many beautiful women who sw your 'size' and wanted you.

Gues that means no one there is spiking.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Charles

I believe that Frank G was worried about the danger of getting one's "stuff" caught in the net at the apex of a high leap.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 19:44 Comments || Top||

#12  ............ That just isn't right.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:32 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan Troops Kill 84 Taliban, Capture Leader Mullah Salam
Afghan forces in the southern province of Zabul captured five fugitive Taliban militants, including an insurgent leader, after a battle that killed scores of rebels, a regional Afghan commander said Saturday.
Another victory for Islam’s army - the Taliban (/sarcasm off LH)
The U.S. military said it could confirm that at least 84 enemy fighters were killed in action.
we found 168 arms, so.......
The main Afghan commander in Zabul province, Haji Saifullah Khan, said his troops patrolling the district of Mizan, 25 miles northwest of the provincial capital, Qalat, captured the Taliban fighters late Friday. The captives included a junior rebel commander identified as Mullah Salam. "Mullah Salam was injured and he was taken away in a U.S. helicopter," Khan said without elaborating.
bye bye! Say hello to Bagram then Gitmoooooo
The fleeing Taliban were retreating from Dai Chopan — the Zabul district that was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the ruling hard-line Islamic militia in late 2001.
run away! run away! victory!
Khan said hundreds of Afghan National Army troops are expected to be deployed in Zabul province next week to maintain security. Meanwhile, U.S. troops remained in Dai Chopan and in eastern Paktika province, bordering Pakistan, searching for Taliban holdouts in an operation dubbed "Mountain Viper." Although Afghan officials claimed victory Wednesday after a nine-day battle in Dai Chopan, the U.S. military said it considers the operations ongoing.
"Any of those pieces belong to Mullah Omar?"
"Uhhh... No."
"Then we ain't done yet."
"Operations since yesterday have focused on combat patrols to enhance security," Col. Rodney Davis said Saturday in a statement from Bagram Air Base. The coalition is giving humanitarian assistance to villagers in the area, he said.
"We're from the coalition. We're here to help... Damn! How'd that mud hut get burned to the ground?"
Afghan military commanders claim they have retrieved the bodies of at least 124 Taliban killed in the fighting in Dai Chopan. The U.S. military said it could confirm that at least 84, and perhaps 95, enemy fighters were killed in action. Two American soldiers died in a firefight in Paktika last week that also killed four suspected insurgents.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 5:48:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  " Hand, arm, toe, liver....Hey, does anyone need a liver transplant!? "

" No, but if you find a somwehat intact head, I want it! Promised my mom I frame a Tali's head on ground zero! "
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if the Taliban has a website that lists the total membership so that we can project out how many exactly we have to kill. It would be even better if they updated the tally frequently so that we could see how we're doing at reaching our goal. Hope we don't do to much of the catch and release stuff.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:17 Comments || Top||


Haqqani in command?
Reports filtering from recent guerrilla operations in southern and southeastern Afghanistan indicate that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has personally commanded troops. In Khost and Paktia, meanwhile, where US troops have sustained few casualties but are still under attack, legendary Afghan commander Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani has taken over central command, with Saifullah Mansoor and others now fighting under him.

Haqqani is among the most respected Afghan guerrilla leaders. He fought throughout the resistance against the Soviets in the 1980s, and under his command the mujahideen defeated the Afghan communist forces in Khost, which became the first big city to fall from the Soviets. When the Taliban emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the mid-1990s, Haqqani extended his unconditional support to the new militia and was rewarded with a ministerial position when they came into power in 1996, with control of border areas. But despite recent Taliban successes in defeating local administrations, some Pakistani experts still have reservations about the resistance movement. According to them, it is too scattered. "The Afghan resistance against the former USSR was organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency and the ISI. Each and every resistance activity was very well coordinated by these officials. A present, it is not always well coordinated. As a result, US casualties in Afghanistan have remained far less than expectations. To date, the resistance movement only creates chaos and anarchy, nothing more, nothing less."

It's all they're capable of doing. We can't destroy them, because of the Pak sanctuaries. They can't make a comeback, because as soon as they concentrate we can smear them with air power. All the "chaos and anarchy" can do is slow the building process for the central government, which means a gradual rather than a quick erosion of their Afghan support base. The Pak support base already provides the bulk of their manpower pool. Being Islamists, they're not capable of feeling embarrassment at the fact, instead pretending that Pak Pashtuns are the same thing as Afghan Pashtuns, and as long as they've got Pak Pashtuns in the mix, might as well through in some "Afghan" Punjabis.

A break will come our way when we get Binny or Mullah Omar. Value comes our way when we get Haqqani or to a lesser extent when we get Saifullah Mansoor. The Talibs have no equivalent value opportunities, with the exception of Karzai himself.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:34 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Haqqani must've got done waxing Mullah O's retreatacylcle and needed something to do.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Woman Gives Birth at Wedding Party
JEDDAH — A 39-year-old Saudi woman delivered a baby at a wedding hall in the summer resort of Taif where she had come to attend the marriage of a friend, a report said yesterday. The woman insisted on joining the wedding party although she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy, the report said. “She suddenly went into labor and the mother of the bride took her to a room inside the hall where she delivered the baby with the assistance of a doctor and nurses.”
Hard to top that for pure entertainment value...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then they stoned the mother and child to death for interrupting the wedding ceremony so rudely.
Posted by: Dar || 09/06/2003 13:39 Comments || Top||

#2  A wedding and a birth at the same time? How many RPGs did they fire off to celebrate this? Is there anything left standing in Jeddah?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  "Then they stoned the mother and child to death for interrupting the wedding ceremony so rudely."

Wouldn't suprise me at all.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 17:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, it's interesting that this made the news. Ten years or so back, it never would have happened (the reporting, I mean).
Posted by: Pappy || 09/06/2003 19:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Damn, talk about your lame honeymoons.
Posted by: Bill Herbert || 09/06/2003 23:20 Comments || Top||


Wanted Saudi Arrested in Yemen
Yemeni security forces arrested a Saudi man wanted in the Kingdom on “security” charges, an informed source at the Yemeni Interior Ministry confirmed yesterday. The man, arrested in an unspecified location in Yemen earlier this week, killed another Saudi fugitive who had been accompanying him before he was captured.
"Sorry, Mahmoud. Y'r slowin' down me getaway!"
Saudi Arabia and Yemen have recently been swapping fugitives under an extradition agreement. The last wanted person extradited by Yemeni authorities to the Kingdom was a Saudi who had escaped from a Jizan prison last month. On August 18, the two countries announced the swap of four Yemenis, including two suspected of involvement in a deadly attack on a French supertanker off Yemen’s southeastern coast, and two Saudis wanted on criminal charges.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  " Lets see, you give us back our future hijackers, and we'll give you back...2 jihadists and a thief. "

" Make that 2 thiefs and you have a deal. Our people enjoy watching hands get cut off. "
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:15 Comments || Top||


Mutawwa ‘Attacker’ Says He Was Framed
YANBU — A war of words has erupted in the wake of an alleged attack on members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice here, Al-Madinah said. Thirteen locals had reportedly attacked members of the commission in front of their offices in an attempt to rescue two men and two women the commission had arrested on the beach on suspicion of not being related to one another. One of the women escaped and all 13 alleged attackers were later arrested. One of the 13 now says the attack was motivated by members of the commission kicking and pulling the hair of one of the women in their custody in front of witnesses. The commission denies this.
"No, no! Certainly not! We're Arabs, after all. Why would we lie?"
Ahmad Hamed Al-Refaie, 30, told the newspaper: “I was on my way to my cousin’s house when I saw a member of the commission dragging a girl into the street by her hair. She saw me and started calling for help. I told the mutawwa to leave her alone because he has no right to arrest her. He was not accompanied by a police officer and he wasn’t riding an official car.” The commission has no powers of arrest.
"We don' need no stinkin' powers of arrest!"
Al-Refaie said an argument then erupted between him and the commission member, who continued to assault the woman. “He beat her up badly with a wooden stick. Other people tried to help, but he threatened to kill me,” he said. After Maghreb prayer that evening, Al-Refaie said, the commission member accompanied by some 20 men including his brothers went to his house and beat him unconscious with metal bars. “If I was in the wrong, why didn’t he simply come with the police and have me arrested?” Al-Refaie asked.
Because you live in a theocratic dictatorship, dimbulb.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can we get the address of some of these folks that refused to bow down to Allah's Avengers? They have obviously lost the path of righteousness. We could all help by sending them "recreational supplies." Here is my suggested list of supplies to keep them busy so that the Jihad Vigalantees don't have to take matters into their own hands again:
1. Baseball bats
2. Bicycle chains
3. Socks full of pennies
4. Car antenas
5. Anything that an English soccer fan might take to the pitch.

This should keep the secularists from excess free time. As the prophet said, "idle at work is the bloodbrother of the destroyer."
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Al-Refaie said an argument then erupted between him and the commission member, who continued to assault the woman. “He beat her up badly with a wooden stick. Other people tried to help, but he threatened to kill me,” he said.

What a f**king wuss! Some jagoff is whaling on a female friend, the mighty woman-beater threatens to kill the guy if he helps her, so the balless wonder does nothing. No wonder the Arab armies suck. Are they all French on their mothers side?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 09/06/2003 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  I used to carry a bike chain around with me. Make sure you tape up the links so you don't cut your own fingers off if you use it. But it will do the job if you need it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I forgot tire irons. For ... hobbiest that are working on ... their hot rods. Yeh, there's the ticket.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 14:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Non, non! Zey are all French on zere father's side! Zey just don't know it!
Posted by: Fred || 09/06/2003 16:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Hodadenon:

You don't know what you are speaking about. This guy was not in America. In such kinds of dictatorships a
cop can have you liquidated with all your family just because he disliked the color of your shoes. This guy needed a pair of really big ones to do what he did. Read the Gulag Archipielago: _everyone_ dirtied at the mere sight of one of the KGB guys, and this was the people who later fought at Stalingrad.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/06/2003 17:15 Comments || Top||

#7  This episode is like an 8-week old baby starting to pick its head up.

They're starting to grow up, I just wish we had time on our side to watch them do it on their own.

But we don't.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/07/2003 3:11 Comments || Top||


Britain
Saudi sadist jailed for torturing teenager
The son of a former Saudi government official was today jailed for five years for imprisoning and torturing a pregnant teenager. Sammy Shadukhi kept the terrified 17-year-old girl captive for a month in his luxury riverside apartment overlooking the River Thames in Rotherhithe, South London. Shadukhi, 22, whose unnamed father was said to have retired recently from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of the Interior, whipped his captive regularly and subjected her to a string of punishments, the court heard. The pregnant girl escaped after Shadukhi, an English language student, threatened to "slaughter her like a sheep". But she broke her back, leg and ankle in the bid and lay unconscious on the shore for two hours. The girl came to and screamed for help after falling 60ft onto the shore of the River Thames. Neighbours heard her cries and she was airlifted to hospital.

The court heard that she would have drowned if the tide had been high. Judge Jonathan van der Werff, sentencing Shadukhi at the Inner London Crown Court, said: "You kept her under your control at all times and you subjected her to various sorts of torture ... tying her up with wire and Sellotape and keeping her like that for long periods. You made threats to kill ... holding a knife to her throat and causing an injury that was still visible a month later." The judge said that the girl was unable to call for help because Shadukhi disconnected the phone, and she became convinced that she would die if she did not flee his clutches. "You threatened to slaughter her like a sheep. She believed you. That was the main reason that she eventually tried to escape. These were deeply unpleasant crimes for which you have shown no remorse."

The teenager spent weeks recovering from her ordeal and terminated her pregnancy at five months because she feared her fall may have deformed her unborn child. She told the two-week trial that her ordeal began when Shadukhi invited her into his waterfront apartment in January last year. The student refused to let her leave and in over the next month would repeatedly torture her. She said he bound her and attempted to drown her in the bath. Shadukhi also forced the teenager's head into a bucket of hot water, telling her: "This is the last day of your life. You don't deserve to live. I have got to get rid of you."

Every culture has its share of sickos like Sammy, so his conviction says nothing about Soddy culture. But I wish he'd gotten more than five years, and I hope to hell the Brits send him back to Arabia when he's out.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While it's true that any culture produces nutjobs like Sammy, what is more damning is that Saudi Embassy staff tried to hush the whole thing up :

During the trial it was alleged that Saudi embassy officials tried to bribe the girl into dropping the charges against Shadukhi, whose father is a retired Saudi official.

from Saudi student tortured girl in flat {BBC}

Tut, tut...
Posted by: Lux || 09/06/2003 11:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Shadukhi was convicted of sample [sic] counts of false imprisonment, making threats to kill and causing actual bodily harm. ... He was found not guilty of rape and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He was formally cleared of unlawful wounding and a second charge of actual bodily harm after the jury failed to return a verdict."

I guess it wasn't his fault that she fell down that 60' embankment and almost killed herself during her escape, right? I mean, if she'd stayed those things would never have happened, so they're her own fault!

What the #$%^& is going on in the UK these days?
Posted by: John Anderson || 09/06/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Is it possible that he was conduting some kind of research for his thesis? Maybe this was a Saudi "art piece." Is this the same school that Uday graduated from?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 12:57 Comments || Top||

#4  An obvious case of "honor torture". Says here in the Koran you're free to go, Sammy. Peace be upon you.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Only 5 years!?!?
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/06/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Quote of the day:
"You threatened to slaughter her like a sheep...That was the main reason that she eventually tried to escape."

All the other things were so much fun, she wouldn't have wanted to leave at all!
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 16:25 Comments || Top||

#7  "Only 5 years!?!?"

Why are you so suprised? I'm sure the Saudi government had something to do with the verdict.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 17:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Five years might be enough. Let's find a vacant hole in the Tower of London (of Katheryn of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots fame), preferably below ground, where the ooze from the Thames seeps in when it gets cold. Chain him with one arm on the wall, and one to the floor. Feed him by throwing rotten potatoes at his head. He can drink while we sluice him off now and then.

THOSE five years would be enough.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 19:49 Comments || Top||

#9  I hope the guiy is physically small and gets adopted then sold to others for a carton of smokes.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 19:52 Comments || Top||

#10  On initially reading this, I thought it was happening somewhere in the ME. But this piece of shit is in *my* country. Fucker. I'm really hoping that SH (aka Steve) is on the right track and that someone makes his day - repeatedly.
Posted by: Tony || 09/06/2003 20:20 Comments || Top||


Europe
Germany protests Italian "Hitler" wine.
Hat tip to Drudge.
Germany has protested to Italy over a winery that labels its bottles with portraits of Adolf Hitler, the Justice Ministry said Friday. Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries recently wrote to her Italian counterpart to say the labels are "contemptible and tasteless" and asked him to see what could be done against them, spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said. The wine is available legally in Italy, where it can also be purchased on the Internet, Ms Wirtz said. Its sale is illegal in Germany, where products bearing images or slogans from the Nazi era are outlawed. Still, Bavaria state said it was opening an investigation to see if any of the bottles had crossed the border. Ms Zypries, in her letter to Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, expressed hope that Italy would act as part of common European efforts to fight racism and xenophobia.
Next up, Saddam Cola, Idi Amin Spritzer, and Uncle Joe Root Beer.
Posted by: Dar || 09/06/2003 7:45:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't forget the classic Stalin Martinee.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:29 Comments || Top||

#2  degeneracy is thriving in old europe.
Posted by: rbr || 09/06/2003 23:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Hitler wine is disgusting, but the German mentality to order foreign governments to outlaw disgusting behavior of their nationals is quite disturbing. In fact, it reminds one of Hitler.

If it bothers you, don't buy that crap.
Posted by: Peter || 09/07/2003 6:58 Comments || Top||


German Brewery Donates Beer To American Soldiers
The Germans didn't back the U.S. war in Iraq, but a German brewery is treating American sailors and soldiers to beer. Munich-based Spaten, one of the world's oldest breweries, is donating 600 cases of lager to each branch of the U.S. military for personnel who fought in the war. Navy Capt. Terry McKnight, commanding officer of the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, said Wednesday that his sailors would have no qualms about drinking brew from a country that refused to join coalition forces in the invasion of Iraq. "A cold beer is a cold beer," McKnight said.

Donald C. Bennett, a selectee for chief petty officer who came to a Norfolk Naval Station loading dock to claim four cases for his crew on the submarine Montpelier, agreed: "We're happy to drink it all."

However, there is one small problem that Louis Sieb, president of Spaten North America, did not consider when he came up with the idea. The average sailor is 20. Legal drinking age is 21. "They give up everything, right? They put their lives on the line, right? And they can't drink beer? Still, a good thing, I think," Sieb said.
Okay. I give up. All is forgiven.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Legal drinking age is 21." Well, sorta kinda... It's a long time since I was in, but on-base Enlisted and NCO clubs could serve beer to 18-year-olds.
Posted by: John Anderson || 09/06/2003 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Back in '72, as long as you had military ID, cops in Oklahoma didn't mess with you if you were drinking. How times have changed.
Posted by: badanov || 09/06/2003 12:56 Comments || Top||

#3  "Sorry, son, that beer is too dangerous for you. Here, take this M-16 instead."
Posted by: Dar || 09/06/2003 13:41 Comments || Top||

#4  The green active duty card ceased to be a free pass for underage drinking during the Clinton years. Must have changed a law related to "inter-state commerce" and threatened to without highway funds.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 14:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Actually Reagan scaled back the use of booze by the military. It made the base the same drinking age as the state. Not everybody thought this was a good idea. When I was on temporary duty to George AFB CA a Captain bought me all the beer I needed. I was 20 at the time. They really started to crack down on DUI/DWI and such about the mid-late 80s. About the same time the locals started to get tough. I never liked the rule but I never 'directly' provided beer to any minor in uniform.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 09/06/2003 16:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Next time I go shopping at the local imported adult beverage shop, I'm gonna look for some Spaten products.
Posted by: Mike || 09/06/2003 19:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Never liked the "old enough to die but not old enough for a frosty one" mentality. Still there are probably many fewer closed casket funerals of young privates. airmen and sailors.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 19:58 Comments || Top||

#8  In Bavaria beer is not classified as an alcoholic beverage but as a "basic food"!

Enjoy your "Oktoberfest" in Iraq!
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/06/2003 21:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Yep,if I' old enough to die for my country I'm old enough to have a beer.When I was in the Army EM clubs served 3.2 beer(bloated before loaded). In Korea I could get all the booze I wanted in the vill.
OB beer ok.
Jin Roe taste like rubbing alcohol,poor off first 1" or you ight go blind.
Machali(barley wine)look like mud,tasted terrible.But a couple of tea pots and you had a nice buzz going.
Posted by: raptor || 09/07/2003 8:20 Comments || Top||


EU decides Hamas political wing is a terrorist organization
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Italy on Saturday declared that the political wing of Hamas was a terrorist organization following the group's claim of responsibility for the bus bombing attack in Jerusalem in mid August which killed 22 Israelis.
Rantissi shot off his mouth at precisely the wrong instant. The Frenchies almost had it in the bag...
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday called on the European Union to put Hamas and all its branches on the list of terror groups. Sharon made the request during a phone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Sharon also called for stopping the flow of money to Hamas from Europe. Until this point, the European Union considered only Hamas' military wing, the Izzedin al-Kassam Brigades, as a terrorist group.
On the polite theory that picking the target is a different matter from actually booming the target...
The EU decision, which brings it in line with US and Israeli anti-terror poilicy, opens the way for the freezing of Hamas' financial assets and its leaders being placed on a global terrorist blacklist.
Assuming the Euros are serious, expect Hamas to change its name soon, followed by a discreet transfer of funds...
Despite earlier French objections to outlawing the Palestinian militant group, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters that "a consensus emerged to decide on putting Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations." Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said a group of intelligence services from member countries would on Monday start examining Hamas and then make recommendations about how to blacklist the organization, according to media reports from the EU meeting. "There is complete political agreement...but it is not for us (ministers) to put it on the list," he told reporters. "That is the so-called clearing house, a group of experts, which examine if a group of people should be on the list. It is their decision," he added.
The intel guys will pick and choose the actual names and aliases to go on the list...
"There was complete agreement that, given the outrage perpetrated by Hamas...on the 19th of August and which killed so many innocent people and for which there was no conceivable justification, we've taken a political decision to freeze the assets of Hamas and other actions," Biritsh Foreign Minister Jack Straw said Saturday.
The problem the Paleos are facing at the moment is that the road map wasn't something Bush came up with out of his own head. It was the result of a year's worth of meeting with the Quartet that included the EU and the UN, as well as the Arabs. It was another Camp David-type thing that Israel partisans (see for instance Israpundit) hated — the very best deal they were going to get. Hamas blew that entire exercise in mulilateralism (and Yasser supported them all the way). Even the Frenchies weren't able to avert at least some consequences. All they'll be able to do now is keep them to a minimum.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 09:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Despite earlier French objections to outlawing the Palestinian militant group, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters that "a consensus emerged to decide on putting Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations."'

Translation: "We was outvoted, and without veto power we surrendered."

'"There is complete political agreement...but it is not for us (ministers) to put it on the list," he told reporters. "That is the so-called clearing house, a group of experts, which examine if a group of people should be on the list. It is their decision," he added.'

Translation: 'The French can still derail this.'
Posted by: John Anderson || 09/06/2003 12:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I have never understood why AQ doesn't borrow from the Hamas model and merge with the Detroit Rotory Club or found a bowling team for cover. They could buy the shirts and the shoes and then no one could call them terrorists; they would obviously be bowlers.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Calling them terrorists is one thing. When they actually take action against them, then I'll clap in sarcasm.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 17:11 Comments || Top||

#4  One large step for a Phrog; one small step for mankind.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/06/2003 17:34 Comments || Top||


Al-Jazeera criticises Spain's arrest of star journalist
Qatar-based television channel Al-Jazeera has criticised Spain's arrest earlier in the day of its star journalist Tayseer Allouni in the southern city of Grenada on suspicion of links to extremist groups. Mr Alluni's detention "is another inconvenience to which journalists in general and those from Al-Jazeera in particular fall victim," the channel's spokesman Jihad Blut told AFP.
The very fact that the guy's named Jihad makes me discount his statement. If it turns out he's a German Muslim, I doubly discount the statement.
"The channel has appointed a lawyer for Allouni and is now trying to contact the Spanish authorities as well as non-governmental organisations responsible for defending the freedom of the press," he said. Police sources in Madrid said earlier that Allouni had been arrested on the orders of judge Baltasar Garzon as part of his investigation into Islamic militant operations. Mr Allouni is suspected of having links to members of Al Qaeda, including Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, alias Abu Dahdah, who was arrested on suspicion of being the ringleader of an Islamist fundamentalist cell which Spanish authorities dismantled in November 2001. The cell is suspected of having helped to prepare the September 11 attacks, although the US justice did not apply for extradition. In late October 2001, just weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Spanish daily El Pais reported police had been tracking Allouni, who is of Syrian origin but who has Spanish citizenship, for around a year on suspected links to Islamic radicals.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 08:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hypothetically, I hope, if an Al-Jazeera is implicated in the death of Daniel Pearl, which side of the issue will the BBC support?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  SH - regardless, Blair sexed it up
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  "...suspicion of links to extremist groups"
Or, as they call it at Al-Jiz, "moonlighting".
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:51 Comments || Top||

#4  " I wasn't taking part in terror activities! I was just visiting family! "
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 17:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Jihad Blut (German for blood)??? Where do they get these names from, jeez!
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/06/2003 22:14 Comments || Top||


Europe’s harvest crisis: heatwave devastates grain crops
The prolonged heatwave has devastated crops across Europe, leaving some countries facing their worst harvests since the end of the second world war. The searing weather, especially in central and eastern Europe, has forced countries that usually export food to import it for the first time in decades. Several, including Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, are experiencing rising food prices and the UN is warning this will have a severe impact on economies. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), wheat output in the EU is expected to be millions of tonnes down on last year, with much greater losses in southern Europe than in the north.
Wonder if they’ll consider lowering the tariffs on African foodstuffs ... ... ... ... nah!
France has also been severely hit, and is expected to lose more than 20% of its grain harvests. Italy is expected to lose 13% of its wheat, Britain 12% and other countries 5%-10%. In Britain, one immediate effect is likely to be a 7p rise in the price of a loaf, retailers said. In Ukraine, once known as the breadbasket of Russia, the wheat crop fell to 5m tonnes this year, a 75% decrease on normal years. In Moldova, 40% of the wheat area has reportedly been decimated and harvests are down 80%. According to the FAO, which has sent a mission to assess the emergency, losses are being been compared to those of 1945, the worst harvest in memory. Across the EU, wheat production is down 10m tonnes, about 10%.

"In some parts it’s pretty bad," said Henri Josserand, head of the FAO’s early warning system, which forecasts harvests and predicts where food may be scarce. "Some countries will have to import a lot more than usual. Their import bills will go up significantly." He warned that floods similar to those that caused devastation in Germany two years ago are likely to hit parts of Europe shortly. "These are now ideal conditions for serious flash flooding because the capacity for the ground to absorb water is very low." The UN figures, released yesterday, mirror those of the world’s two leading crop monitors. The US department of agriculture last week cut its forecast for this year’s global grain harvest by 32m tonnes, mainly because of Europe’s extreme weather. The International Grains Council, an intergovernmental organisation, believes the world harvest will be even lower.

A report from the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme, paints a bleak picture of the intense weather continuing to devastate farming. Last year was the third time in four years that global wheat, rice and maize production failed to meet demand, forcing governments and food companies to release stocks from storage. This week India released 50% of its food stocks, partly as a result of intense heat and then floods in some states. But although 38 countries are experiencing food emergencies, the UN does not believe there will be overall food shortages this year. "The world food supply is on an upward trend," said Mr Josserand. "But just because the world is doing OK, it doesn’t mean that in some areas the situation is not severe. Southern Africa, especially Zimbabwe, is still in real difficulty."
Zim-Bob-We ... we’ve heard something about a food crisis down there, haven’t we? Wonder why?
Surprisingly, one country that has done better than ever this year is Afghanistan, where the cereal crop will be the largest on record, due in large part to good rainfall and better access to seeds and fertilisers.
Afghanistan, breadbasket of Europe!
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 12:34:23 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ahhhh, but the Spanish and Italian and German wines should be excellent - heat raises sugar content, alcohol %. French wines should still suck ....just because.....
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  One of the things I have ever found funny is that the French and the French-influenced oenologists dismiss the Spanish wines as "being too heavy, not tanic enough due to Spain's summer heat" but that when France is struck by a particularly hot and dry summer (ie Spanish-like summer) the same oenologists explain the French wine will be exceptionally good due to the heat. Go figure.
Posted by: JFM || 09/06/2003 2:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Translation: " We need our wine sales! "

Time to buy more Spanish wine. They helped and supported us, and France didn't.

Everyone spread the word! Spanish wine is better than French! Buy Spanish!
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 3:06 Comments || Top||

#4  We'll send the EU some burlap sacks full of GM food that they can use to sandbag their flooding rivers with. I wonder if we can engineer a better grape?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 9:21 Comments || Top||

#5  According to this article, Europe may need to change quite a few things, if they want to keep feeding themselves. Then there will be the swing back the other way as we move into the next Ice Age in about 8000 years. Still, a little cooperation should see the world capable of feeding itself, even under the worst conditions. The problem is that cooperation.

There are signs that the US is finally coming out of its four-year drought, at least enough to rebuild grain outputs to close to those of the early 1990's. A few new, genetically altered species of corn, milo (a feed grain), sorgham, wheat, and rye, capable of better withstanding a drought and extreme heat, are also being tested in Texas, where I can personally attest it's hot and dry enough!

Europeans will soon have to make a choice - either accept GM foods, or go hungry. Wah, wah.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Wierd - the only wheat doing well is this genetically engineered stuff. Oh well, U guess we will al starve...
Posted by: flash91 || 09/06/2003 11:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Super Hose asked if we could engineer a better grape. We might, but don't really need to: after WWII there were few vineyards producing anything - most French grapes today are descendants of cuttings sent from US universities.
Posted by: John Anderson || 09/06/2003 12:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Mr Anderson

I hope we sent them the best we had.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:05 Comments || Top||

#9  When's the famine???
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Global warming! AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/06/2003 16:45 Comments || Top||

#11  "Global warming! AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

I have two theories on Global warming.

1: It's a normal occurence in the Earth's life-cycle.

2: God saw what the world became in the 90's, and decided to fry us with a giant, invisible maginfy glass.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:31 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Star attacks US culture of fear
EFL.Yes, they’re beginning to crawl back out from under the rocks. As usual, in Europe...
The American actor Tim Robbins broke his silence yesterday after being attacked for putting US troops "in danger" by speaking out against the invasion of Iraq. Robbins, whose partner and fellow actor, Susan Sarandon, has also been criticised for her anti-war stance, said the cold shouldering they received had been "a gift" which had rallied liberals to the cause of free speech.
But, please. Don’t give us the gift of "empty wallets". Thanks a lot.
"It’s sparked a lot of people in Hollywood who would have spoken out and felt intimidated to say something," Robbins said at the Venice Film Festival. "Too often people abdicate their freedom in their minds and choose not to speak. But once you abdicate that freedom you may as well not have it."
...and make sure you agree with me and Sooze when you do speak out. If you don’t, keep your "hate speech" to youselves.
Robbins stars with the British actor Samantha Morton in Michael Winterbottom’s film Code 46, which was warmly received when it premiered yesterday at the festival. The science fiction love story is set in the near future, when large swaths of humanity are excluded from the global megalopolises by an omnipotent organisation called The Sphinx.
OOOOOOOOOOh! The Sphinx? Any chance a GWB lookalike will be head of The Sphinx? Place your bets!
Manchester-born Winterbottom, who won the Golden Bear for best film at Berlin earlier this year for In This World, based on the experience of refugees, said he was inspired to make Code 46 after meeting the dispossessed in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Dispossessed? Like Binny, Mullah Omar, and that crew?
Robbins was persuaded to hire a bodyguard during filming for the first time in his career. But he said his anxiety had "no basis in reality".
Then why hire one?
"People in the Middle East make a distinction between governments and individuals. They say they disagree with my government but not with me. I live now in a lot less fear, now I have turned off my TV," he said.
...and stuffed my head up my ass. It’s nice and quiet up there.
The actor, who is a supporter of liberal causes, said he was worried about the atmosphere in the US. "I think we are being fed a lot of fear by people who would rather we were afraid than aware," he said.
Must be why he shut off his TV.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 3:14:59 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently, Robbins is still peeved at being denied a chance to politicize an event that had nothing to do with Iraq whatsovever. Tough. Oh, and about that little issue of free speech, nobody is trying to squelch Robbin's right to say what he wants. Rather, it's that no one is obligated to provide a forum for such against their wishes.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/06/2003 15:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Tim and Susan - the only reason you're employed is because you are actors! I like many of the characters you've portrayed (Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham, young Susan in Rocky Horror....yum), but thepoint is, when you play yourselves, in real life, without somebody else's words and emotions written out for you? I find you tedious, small-minded, idiots. Stick to emoting other people's thoughts and we'll do fine. I'll pay to watch the movies when I choose, and you can do whatever stupidity you want otherwise, so long as we understand each other....same to you Johnnie...
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 16:18 Comments || Top||

#3  I wasn't even aware they were still working on films....
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I call for them to lead as large a group of human shields as they can muster to take up residence in Seoul. With their presence in Seoul, we can then remove our 30,000 troops and use the troops as reliefs for our tired boys in Iraq.

I intend to hold my breath until this happens.

10..9..8...
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:05 Comments || Top||

#5  "People in the Middle East make a distinction between governments and individuals. They say they disagree with my government but not with me."

Tell that to Daniel Pearl. And the Israeli boys bludgeoned to death while hiking. And the children shot to death in their bed while their mother died trying to protect them. And the riders of Jerusalem's public transit. And the three thousand or so non-governments whom a bunch "people" from the Middle East apparently "disagreed" with enough to slaughter without warning. Mr. Robbins is being deliberately obtuse.

Maybe his point is everything would be fine if we all agreed never to disagree with anyone in the Middle East ever again about anything.

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"
Posted by: GKarp || 09/06/2003 23:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Stole my rant,G!
Posted by: raptor || 09/07/2003 8:33 Comments || Top||


'Rats' slur writer is facing Muslim race case
An Italian author who wrote an attack on Muslims, calling their culture rotten and backward and saying "the sons of Allah are multiplying like rats", was accused of inciting racial hatred in Paris yesterday. Oriana Fallaci, 73, an Italian journalist now living in New York, was unable to attend the court hearing as she has cancer. She first published her polemic against Islam, titled The Rage and the Pride, in an Italian newspaper but such was its impact that it was turned into a best-selling book.
Struck a nerve, did it?
If successful, the case against her will set a precedent in French law. Up to now, only the public prosecutor or official anti-racist associations have been allowed to bring cases alleging incitement to racial hatred. Ms Fallaci's accusers are 11 young Muslim men from the Lyons suburbs.
Who're multiplying like rats...
"When a victim is clearly designated, the sons of Allah, why should I, a Muslim, not feel victimised?" asked their lawyer, Gilles Devers. "I have as strong a claim as the associations." Ms Fallaci's lawyers, and those of her French publisher, Plon, said allowing individuals to bring such cases would create a class of "thought police" tying up writers with endless frivolous lawsuits. They also argued that victims must suffer an expressly targeted prejudice.
Under English common law, truth is a defense in a slander case. Wonder if that's the case under Code Napoleon?
A similar case against Ms Fallaci was brought by French anti-racist associations last year but was rejected on technicalities. The judgment on the latest case will be heard next month.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya gotta like Fallaci -- pulls no punches, never, ever holds back. She's been mad at the US for a long time but that doesn't stop her from calling it as she sees it.

I wouldn't want to be in a knife fight against her.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 11:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The Rage and the Pride
Posted by: Parabellum || 09/06/2003 13:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I've got the book, kinda small, like her, but she's a tough cookie and pulls no punches
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 13:13 Comments || Top||

#4  She didn't write it in France. Why is she being persecuted for it there? I thought it was only Belgian law that applied everywhere.
Posted by: Dishman || 09/06/2003 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  When Fallaci gets done skewering the French, they'll wish they never even thought of this.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Whatta gal! Whatta heroine! BUY HER BOOK NOW! I bought it months ago, you will not be disappointed. The feckless french have this hate speech law which works just for the Islamist doublespeak. F*ck the fr*nch. They deserve the dhimmitude coming their way, leave Oriana alone. Whatta mensch, a TRUE liberal. The Islamist bastards screech like they are being bathed in acid at the mention of her name, a perfect recommendation for those who will not be dhimmis. F*ck the arabs, GO IDF!
Posted by: Craig || 09/06/2003 19:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Even though she's a lady she's got two big brass ones. Let's clone her
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire || 09/06/2003 21:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Is she like a euro-liberal version of Ann Coulter?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Commie, SH.

I read it on the net when it first came out. She got it in one.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/07/2003 3:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Reffering to me as a kafir,and Spawn of Satan is ok.Screw the toads,I here by declare the French have just been lowered on the "food chain".
Posted by: raptor || 09/07/2003 8:53 Comments || Top||


"Bush Knew": 9/11 conspiracy theorists meet in Berlin
And the guest list has some familiar names...(and do follow the links)
Writers and activists who believe the United States government is hiding the truth about the September 11 attacks will hold a conference in Berlin this Sunday, organisers announced. The meeting of US and European activists will compile a list of questions and demands for documents to be submitted to the US and German governments as well as the European Union on the second anniversary of the attacks.
  • "I take the position that the (US President George W) Bush administration had absolute fore-knowledge of the attacks," said Michael Ruppert, who is one of the organisers, adding that he believed Bush had "facilitated" the attacks.

  • A former member of the US Congress, Cynthia McKinney, who is also due to address the conference, told reporters: "Who else knows ... why were the innocent people of New York not warned."

  • Another organiser, Nicholas Levis from New York, said the conference was encouraged by the fact that a recent opinion poll showed 19 per cent of Germans believed the US government may have given the order for the September 11 attacks.
Posted by: seafarious || 09/06/2003 12:02:03 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If we didn't know just how pathetic Cynthia McKinney was before then at least we do now.

I wonder how much she's getting paid to speak? Cashing in on those 9-11 victims.. cha-ching!
Posted by: g wiz || 09/06/2003 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Nicholas Levis has a site that says " AmericansinEurope".

I wonder why they're in Europe, and not yelling and holding meetings here in the US?

Could it be because NO ONE BUT UNEDUCATED AND POOR DIPSHITS LEFT WING EXTREMISTS BELIEVE THEM?!

I hope they stay in Europe. They admire them so much, let them eat from the 'prosperious' crops.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 3:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm an American in Europe (planning on returning ASAP). And, that must be the reason I don't like to hang out with other Americans in Europe. The ones that are here on purpose have a real screw loose. I met a friend who worked in Paris momentarily. He told me every American ex-pat he met living in Paris that had no plans of returning was either running from something or were real crackpots.
Posted by: George || 09/06/2003 6:18 Comments || Top||

#4  meeting of US and European activists will compile a list of questions and demands for documents to be submitted to the US and German governments as well as the European Union.

Demands? How about STFU?.....Christ almighty...
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Two questions:

Is there a way that we can prevent these malcontents from returning?

If so can we ofer free travel so that the conference will be better attended? (I would kick in a few bucks for the ex-poet laureat of NJ to go and not come back.)
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 9:29 Comments || Top||

#6  ...Is there a way that we can prevent these malcontents from returning? ....

Feed their addresses to AQ? Soft Targets!

dorf
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/06/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Gee, Cynthia, maybe the innocent people didn't read the press release the terrorists issued the day before. Yeah, that's it.
I'm just surprised she's not blaming the Jooooooooos. After all, weren't they the ones she blamed when she didn't get re-elected?
As for the rest of the dorks attending this conference, may bees pee upon them all!
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 10:58 Comments || Top||

#8  In case anybody's been wondering what Cynthia's been up to lately, it appears she's gone Ivy League...

Former Congress member Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who gained national attention for her opposition to the war in Iraq and strident criticisms of the Bush administration, will visit Cornell for a few weeks a year for the next three years as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor. A committee of 13 faculty members and deans representing a broad range of disciplines and interests approved her appointment, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.In an e-mail, McKinney wrote that she is "exhilarated and thrilled to become a part of the Cornell and Ithaca families" and that she looks "forward to an exciting, invigorating and challenging semester." McKinney did not say when she would come to campus, but she is likely to visit for two or three weeks at a time to give public lectures and seminars and to attend classes.

Who's she shitting? She's just glad to have a job and found some liberal dupe to give her one. Cornell must be so proud.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Bush should sue for slander.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 16:05 Comments || Top||

#10  I only wish the U.S. had the same kind of solid intelligence that Ruppert, McKinney, and Levis seem to have. Too bad McKinney was thrown out by her state. Maybe she should join the ranks of the Dems running to be prez? FYI kids, this is what happens when you only take half of your medication.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 09/06/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#11  Well of course she had solid intelligence: why else would Bush happen to leave for Florida, on that day? Why did he choose that particular day, huh? What about the 4000 Jews that didn't show up to work at the WTC that same day? Who told them? Why did the ambulance carrying Princess Diana take one hour to reach the hospital? oh wait, wrong conspiracy
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 19:30 Comments || Top||

#12  I can't tell if you're being serious or not, Rafael. But if you are being serious, then go back Leonardo,Donotelo, and Michelangilo in the sewers.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 19:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Please keep McDhimmi. Send us the young Frenchwoman with some wit. You know, open mindedness to the point where the cerebellum slides out is not liberalism, it is simple moonbatism. Just please keep her and demand that we release Mumia so he can kill some of your cops too.
Posted by: Craig || 09/06/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||

#14  TGA needs to hold on tight for the next week or so. The intellectual vacuum from this band of loonies may suck anybody or anything into the vortex!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||

#15  I say we throw a nuclear warhead into the vortex then!
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:40 Comments || Top||

#16  I can't tell if you're being serious or not
Not.

NO ONE BUT UNEDUCATED ... BELIEVE THEM
You'd be surprised. I know atleast one guy with an advanced degree in physics who eats this stuff up for breakfast... and likes it. I think the adjective you were looking for is 'psychopathic'.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 21:00 Comments || Top||

#17  I could write novels about German conspiracy theory books here. The most notable character is Andreas von Bülow, ex-member of the German Parliamentary Commission that controls the intelligence services and Minister for Science and Technology (1980-182) under the SPD Schmidt government. According to him:

- The planes crashing into WTC were not flown by terrorists but guided into the towers by remote control from WTC 7 (sheltering CIA, very bad secret documents and other most secret stuff)

- The towers did not collapse because of the crash but were exploded by a (CIA?) demolition crew.

- No plane ever flew into the Pentagon (bomb planted by the dark forces)

- All evidence (videos etc.) of the terrorists was faked, including the phone calls from the hijacked planes (Hollywood can do aaaaanything)

A rather smart interviewer asked him why, if the CIA was that cunning smart, it couldn't fake a few WMD in Iraq and see to it that the terrorists had direct links to Saddam. (chirp chirp)

And that's just one guy who sells 100000s of copies. Look out for Mr. Bröckers and Mr. Wisniewski.

Oh no, these guys are smart, they don't say that this happened the way they describe it, they just pile up questions and say, hmmmm, could it not have been THAT way instead.

So 20 percent of Germans believe that the dark powers of U.S. intelligence did it. Ok, but how many Americans believe that Elvis lives?

There are open questions with 9/11: most could be answered with a bit of common sense.

Btw I knew that Rafael wasn't serious. The 4000 Jews that never showed up for work is a hoax that has been traced back to some obscure Jordanian paper (maybe). Repeat it often enough and it becomes something of a "fact". Type "Odigo" into Google and hundreds of pages pop up that claim that Jews were warned by IM of the attack. Ah, that makes sense, right. Odigo is an Israeli company, of course the Jewish pals were warned. Of course nobody has ever given any evidence that such a message was sent out. Btw Odigo is freely used by anyone. Did all these Jews not have a single non-Jewish friend to warn? Saaaaad, I tellya! How secret is a message that gets sent out to thousands?

But conspiracy theories against intelligence services are ten a penny. Because you can publish the biggest BS, it will never get a denial.

Of course Tom Clancy would never dream of writing such nonsense in fiction.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/06/2003 22:10 Comments || Top||

#18  If the US government were really effective at deception, wouldn't it make sence that we would have "found" WMD within about 15 minutes of entering Iraq. We're lousy at deception because as an open society someone always outs the conspiracy for a book deal and an appearance with Katie Couric.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:30 Comments || Top||

#19 
So 20 percent of Germans believe that the dark powers of U.S. intelligence did it. Ok, but how many Americans believe that Elvis lives?


Believing Elvis lives doesn't involve spitting on the graves of 3,000 innocent people. Believing Elvis lives doesn't involve ignoring a continuing threat to the lives of millions more.

How many Germans don't believe in the Holocaust anymore?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/07/2003 2:33 Comments || Top||

#20  Wasn't Ruppert the guy who filed a lawsuit in Belgium against W, Rummy and/or Franks?
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/07/2003 3:39 Comments || Top||

#21  McKinney's only recently evolved into walking in an upright position. She defines stupidity and really doesn't have a clue what / where Berlin is. Ask this knuckledragger to find Germany on a map and you'd get a blank stare. She'd be pathetic, really, if it wasn't for all the people out there who think she's on to something.
Posted by: Ned || 09/07/2003 4:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Six dead in Kashmir blast
A bomb has killed at least six people and injured 25 others in Indian-administered Kashmir. The device exploded at a fruit market in the summer capital Srinagar, reportedly as an army convoy drove by. Two of those who died are said to have been blown apart by the force of the explosion, and Indian officials said the death toll could rise further. Indian troops sealed off the area after people living nearby left their homes in panic or to search for relatives. No organisation has so far admitted planting the bomb, which police say was left in a car that was parked near the gate of the fruit market.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 09/06/2003 4:34:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Busy little bees, the Jihadis in K-J. Must have elections, peace overtures, or Hindu religious festivals coming up? F&*king Pakis
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:16 Comments || Top||

#2  dyslexia? J-K
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:54 Comments || Top||

#3  The Ornery American has an interesting essay on Tibet that includes so incite on the effect of the Chinese occupation on the Indo-Pakistani crisis.

The solution that Adam Masterman advocates is that America should fix the problems... comeon why is it not done yet?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 9:57 Comments || Top||

#4  UPDATE:
The separatist militant group Hizbul Mujahideen said it carried out the attack, but claimed it had intended to target the army convoy.
We specifically ordered the bomb to only explode in that direction.

Everybody please go hug a muslim, after this horrific attack that one of their peaceniks carried out we don't want them to feel persecuted. They might get angry or feel offended and bomb a market place.....
Posted by: rg117 || 09/06/2003 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  I thought it had all the earmarks of Hizbul's classic grenade handling techniques, but the article said it was a car bomb...

Apparently they're not too good with cars, either.
Posted by: Fred || 09/06/2003 10:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred----cars are harder to throw at people than grenades. They have to practice some more to get the hang of it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/06/2003 17:38 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iranian agents arrested in Iraq
Iraqi security officials have arrested 12 Iranian intelligence agents allegedly plotting bomb attacks in Baghdad, World Net Daily reported. The report quoted the director of security patrols in the Al-Sulihiyah district of Baghdad who arrested the Iranians at the offices of the Al Mashriq Money Exchange Company. The Iranians were carrying counterfeit dollars and hotel and bank cards.
Oh, bad boys!
While al-Qaida terrorists and pro-Saddam Iraqis are key suspects, U.S. intelligence authorities are considering the possibility Iranian intelligence was behind the Aug. 29 bombing of a mosque in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, a leading moderate Shiite who headed the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Iranians also are suspected in an attempted bombing in the Iraqi city of Najaf Aug. 24. One intelligence official said there is a growing presence of Iranians in Iraq.
"Ardeshir, here's some counterfeit dough and some phoney bank cards. Go to Iraq and blow some stuff up."
"Duh. Hokey, boss."
"And try not to get caught."
"Duh. Hokay, boss. C'n I have my virgins now? Huh? Huh?"
"Soon. It will be soon."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  couldn't this be construed as an act of war? Might justify bombing....oh...say...a reactor?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  In re bombing the reactor... I like the "act of war dodge"... didn't we just deliver some fighter-bombers to the new Iraqui Air Force (wink, wink...nudge,nudge)?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 09/06/2003 14:10 Comments || Top||

#3  We can use the Iranian Ayatollahs as scape-goats to unite Iraq.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:48 Comments || Top||


Diplomats at U.N. Discuss Iraq Proposal
Opponents and supporters of a U.S.-proposed resolution to get more troops and money into Iraq grappled with the key divisive issues Friday - how to quickly restore Iraq’s sovereignty and how large the U.N.’s role should be in rebuilding the country. The United States welcomed the ``good discussion’’ at the first informal meeting of the 15 Security Council members. In contrast to the acrimonious debate in the council before the war, virtually all council ambassadors said the session was much more open to give-and-take.
Wonder who was doing which?
France and Germany, which opposed the war, are conditioning their approval of the resolution on a more rapid transition of power from Iraq’s U.S.-picked Governing Council to a new government elected by Iraqis. But both said they believed a compromise was possible - and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday he was ``optimistic’’ one could be reached.
Jack is always optimistic.
``There’s a lot of work to do still,’’ said Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger. ``But this meeting ... was in a very constructive mood, and I think there was no confrontation whatsoever. You could feel that every member of the council wanted to make a contribution that would add to the significance, and to the effectiveness of that resolution.’’
I’m sure the Guyanan delegation contributed significantly.
``I think things are moving forward relatively well,’’ said Chile’s U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz. ``That’s why I’m moderately optimistic that we’ll get an agreement.’’ U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he suggested that foreign ministers of the five veto-wielding council nations meet with him ``to explore a common ground and the way forward.’’ He expressed hope in a CNN interview that such a meeting ``will take place in the not too distant future.’’
Ah no, that would be 3 ganging up on 2.
Britain, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, said all members agreed to work for a united approach that would encourage the restoration of Iraq’s independence and help create ``a successful Iraq in political, economic and security terms.’’ Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov gave cautious approval to the resolution Friday, but reaffirmed Russia’s push for a quick restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty, adding that the draft will need ``serious work’’ to win approval.
Thus trying to have it both ways -- "we support it but it won’t pass without work".
After Friday’s meeting, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov stressed that sovereignty must be restored ``within a very specific timeframe, and that this must be done in a way which involves the Iraqis, which involves the United Nations, and which is endorsed by the Security Council.’’
Timeframe: when they’re ready.
The United States was clearly taking a softer stance than it has on previous Iraq-related issues that have come before the council. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte stressed the resolution was only ``a working draft’’ and his boss in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell, offered to ``adjust and adapt’’ the text. But in a swipe at France and Germany, he told reporters, ``If you would like to see something different, make a proposal in addition to an editorial comment.’’
"Just so we know what we’re shooting at towards."
Negroponte said the resolution was a way forward because it focused on ``the rapid restoration of full sovereignty to Iraq.’’ However, the draft resolution doesn’t relinquish U.S. political and military control of Iraq, and many council nations are demanding a much stronger U.N. role. The U.S. draft invites the Iraqi Governing Council to work with the United Nations and U.S. officials to produce a timetable for drafting a new constitution and holding democratic elections. It calls for the U.S.-led military force in Iraq to be transformed into a multinational force under a unified command. U.S. officials insist it must be led by an American general. France would like to see the United Nations replace the United States as Iraq’s interim administrator, as would Mexico. Syria and Germany want a U.N.-led force, council diplomats said. France would also like some responsibilities now in the hands of the U.S.-led coalition to be transferred to the Governing Council immediately, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity. It is expected to submit amendments next week.
Like the oil contracts, for example.
The U.S. draft leaves the key decision on a timetable for elections in the hands of the Governing Council, which took months just to form a Cabinet. Chile’s Munoz said he proposed that the council ask Annan to consult and agree with the Governing Council on a concrete timetable, shifting the primary responsibility. While many countries want a stronger U.N. role, Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry conceded there is ``a contradiction’’ at the moment because the United Nations has drastically reduced its international staff in Iraq following the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters. U.N. Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast briefed the council on the dangers U.N. staff face in Iraq and the need for improved security. Jones Parry said the council ``underlined that we would do everything possible to deliver proper security.’’
"But you’ll have to let us instead of showing your usual disdain for common sense."
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 12:25:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep. This is the ticket. But we should go all the way. We've been culturally insensitive - and we deserve all of the hatred and animus of the world. We asked for it - they had no choice. It's time to set things right, once and for all.
1) We should let the French write the resolution - they'll act in their national interest and, being our good allies with all those overlapping interests, we'll be as pleased as punch with what they produce. We've failed to recognize them and the valuable guidance they've offered over the years. It's time we sat down and learned the art of diplomacy.

2) This will please the Germans immensely, so things will immediately improve with them, as well. We should apologize for entering WWII. They hadn't done anything to us, after all.

3) Kofi will probably forgive us - and we can restore that important link by offering our help wherever his little heart desires in Africa.

And, while that's being "debated" and the champagne flows at the UN, we should pack everything and everyone up in Iraq and haul it all back to America. It was a mistake. We're very very sorry.

1) The Shia are reasonable folks - they'll pacify the South and get all the help they need from the moderate Iranians. The Holy Mullahs will be glad to step in and correct the terrible situation in Iraq.

2) Our good fiends and allies, the Turks, will help maintain order in the North. We can trust them to "solve" those messy Kurdish issues.

3) We can help our pal Tony, too, cuz the limeys can go home too. If the Brits toss him out, we will offer permanent residence and pensions for him and his entire Govt in the US - Chevy Chase is nice. Or we could give them back Boston and New York so they can settle in comfortably. The Rev War was a mistake - their Geo3 was a jolly good fellow.

4) The important Arab tribal culture should not be denigrated as backward or brutal. Far from it - it is the beacon of man's future, not it's past. We'll trust the Sunnis to handle the central zone. The Sheikhs will recognize that acting for the greater good of Iraq overrides local loyalties and bakshish.

When these wheels start turning, we can mend fences with the Saudis, who've never ever done anything whatsoever to harm us. We should bring back a token US military force - and then throw ourselves out so their public will know the Royals and Clerics are our betters.

The Egyptians and our good friend Mubarek, we should give them $4B per year, instead of the measly $2B. They deserve it! Just cuz.

We should issue an apology to Perv and Pakiland - and immediately set up a madrassah fund to relieve the strain on our Saudi brothers. We'll empty Gitmo - and compensate each person kept there handsomely.

A blanket apology should be offered to the surviving Taliban - and a reparations fund set up immediately to right the terrible wrongs they've suffered at our hands. We can offer to execute some Afghan women who've shed the burqa to show how serious we are.

The Iranians. What can I say? How can I mitigate the damage we caused them by broadcasting messages encouraging their public to revolt? I say we give the mullahs the Toyota dealerships owned by all registered Repooblicans in compensation. This will give them a cash flow and base of operations in the US. They can spread the Religion of Peace. We will all sit at their feet and learn the wisdom and their holy ways.

Syria - I doubt that Baby Doc can forgive us, but we'll get that pipeline back online immediately!

Dear Leader - you were right. We've been threatening you and making peace and prosperity impossible. You have every right to demand oil and food and the right to sell nuke and missile tech to anyone you please. We'll give you Hollywood in compensation for our failure to see your shining example.

And then we'll get serious about this road map stuff. Arafat will be made Permanent Presidential Foreign Advisor for Middle Eastern Affairs. We will guarantee them $4B per year, just like Egypt. We will immediately send war material to the militant groups - along with some damned fine cash bonuses to get the ball rolling, again. Our full arms inventory will be made available to them.

The we'll declare war on Israel. What isn't our fault must be theirs. Nuke the place - when the wind is right.

This set of gestures should open doors and make us popular throught the world. Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, and Johnny Depp will be appointed to cabinet positions. Then Geo43 will resign in disgrace and his entire cabinet will be shot.
That oughtta do it.
Posted by: .com || 09/06/2003 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Newt Gingrich had the best solution for dealing with this so far: Screw the UN, tell the people on TV it's going to cost more than it's going to cost and tell them exactly what's going on. Tell them it's going to be a tough road and such is life after 9-11. We can deal with bastards like Saddam head on or we can wait for them to deal with us. Period. End of story. He says we don't even need anyone else. I don't why but I believe him.
Posted by: g wiz || 09/06/2003 2:57 Comments || Top||

#3  We don't need anyone else. The UN is out of date and powerless.

We've discussed this already, time and again.

However, the UN fails to realize one thing: There HQ and embassies are all in New York City.

If only the terrorists had realized they could have destroyed 'western ideas ' in one fatal swoop.

Then the UN building would be rubble, and the world would get off it's dead ass and do something!
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 3:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Charles, the UN building in Baghdad IS a pile of rubble. Kofi had already blamed the US for the place getting blowed up real good in spite of the fact that the army offered to provide security and the UN refused. They depended on their old buddies the ex-Baathists to do a good job of protecting their dumb asses (Yup, dumb asses. That's been common practice in a lot of countries....send your kids who ain't too brite but come from rich/powerful families to the UN for a job where they really can't hurt anybody else except maybe some foreigners. Mummy & Daddy don't have to deal with the family mulligan, and you get to keep that political/economic support.)
We damned Americans are just upsetting the established order too much. Heaven forbid some of these little people get to live like humans instead of slaves. Why, if the Iraqis started holding their betters accountable.....then, maybe they would do the same in Syria. Or France. Can't have that, now, can we?
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  That's been common practice in a lot of countries....send your kids who ain't too brite but come from rich/powerful families to the UN for a job where they really can't hurt anybody else except maybe some foreigners. Mummy & Daddy don't have to deal with the family mulligan, and you get to keep that political/economic support.)

How was it done in old England -- first son got the land and money, second son went became an army officer, third son became a vicar ...
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#6  ... moronic son sought government employment.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Tell them we'll let them smoke in their offices. That'll get them on board. Like throwing a five spot at a two dollar whore.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:26 Comments || Top||

#8  the UN building in Baghdad IS a pile of rubble. Kofi had already blamed the US for the place getting blowed up real good in spite of the fact that the army offered to provide security and the UN refused.

To Whom it May Concern,

We deeply regret the loss of your truck and driver in front of our building in Baghdad.

We shall endeavor to address our parking policy accordingly.

--K. A.
Sec Gen, UN
Posted by: eLarson || 09/06/2003 15:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Charles, the UN building in Baghdad IS a pile of rubble.

That's not the building he was talking about. As I read it, he was referring to the UN building in New York City.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/06/2003 16:33 Comments || Top||

#10  I hope Bush is planning on covering David Kay's results. Weren't they due to be released in September?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:12 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Jemaah Islamiya 'damaged but dangerous'
Despite the four-year sentence handed on Tuesday to radical Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and the August 11 capture of top Jemaah Islamiya leader Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali, reports of JI's demise, to paraphrase Mark Twain, are premature.
On the other hand, the twin slaps didn't make the organization any stronger...
Bashir, 65, was convicted of forgery, immigration violations and treason-related charges. The judges found there was not enough evidence to back prosecution claims that he headed JI, the Southeast Asian terror group that has murdered hundreds in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in recent years, and is alleged to be linked to with al-Qaeda.
I think Hizzoner imposed the minimum sentence he though he could get away with...
A recent report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) details the threat posed by JI. Released on August 26, the report "Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia: Damaged but Still Dangerous" finds that it remains active, and deadly. Considering the August 5 bombing of a hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 people, and that on Tuesday four suspected JI members were arraigned for plotting terrorist attacks on five embassies in Thailand and tourist spots in the country's premier tourist spots of Pattaya and Phuket, this should come as no surprise. But the ICG report is noteworthy for its detailed analysis. It finds that it is "a bigger organization than previously thought, with a depth of leadership that gives it a regenerative capacity. It has communication with and has received funding from al-Qaeda, but it is very much independent and takes most, if not all, operational decisions locally." The report also notes that several members of the central command have not yet been identified, let alone apprehended. The cell structure is also considered more extensive than originally believed.
That's how it became a major international terror organization operating in four countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines — and aggressively expanding into others — Thailand, Cambodia, probably Burma, and Australia.
While the arrest of Hambali weakens JI and many of its members are being hunted down - more than 200 are now in custody - it remains a big organizations whose members probably number in the thousands, and it is spread across a very big and populous archipelago. And JI is organized well enough that no single individual is indispensable.
That means they'll have to be taken out in batches, which the Indons actually did in the wake of the Bali bombing. There are more batches waiting to be taken, but not as strong or experienced...
According to the ICG report, the JI organization is something of a family affair. "The JI network is held together not just by ideology and training but also by an intricate network of marriages that at times makes it seems like a giant extended family. Insufficient attention has been paid to the role the women of JI play in cementing the network. In many cases, senior JI leaders arranged the marriages of their subordinates to their own sisters or sisters-in-law to keep the network secure."
Those dynastic marriages will come in handy under the eventual Caliphate, when people are competing to snag the jewelled turbans for themselves...
Furthermore, according to the report, despite some past media reports, JI is hardly an al-Qaeda franchise. While the two groups have some elements in common, notably jihadist ideology and a long history of shared experience in Afghanistan, JI's focus, despite the claims about wanting to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate, continues to be on establishing an Islamic state in Indonesia.
But their idea of "Indonesia" includes Malaysia and Singapore and a good chunk of the Philippines. And anything else they can gnaw off. They're affiliated with Qaeda in the same manner Ansar al-Islam is, or al-Tawhid or the Chechen Arabs...
In theory JI has a formal structure. At the top sits an emir.
That's the guy with the jewelled turban and the dancing girls. He's very holy, God's representative on earth...
Beneath him are four councils - governing council, religious council, fatwah council and disciplinary council.
These will be interlocking directorates, and there will be considerable dynastic marriage among them. Altogether, they'll make up the Council of Boskone... ummm... SPECTRE... errrr... Learned Elders of Islam... Whatever they call it.
The governing council is headed by a central command that exerts control over four regions. One covered Singapore and Malaysia and provided financing for JI operations. Hambali was its head until early last year. The second region covered most of Indonesia and was considered the target of jihad efforts. The third region covered Mindanao, Sabah and Sulawesi. The last covered Papua and Australia and was responsible for fundraising.
At this point...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Four years in the jug for Abu? Hell, that's not a sentence, it's a recruitment drive.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||


US to freeze assets of JI suspects
The United States has announced it has ordered a freeze on the financial assets of 10 alleged members of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group. "This is an important further step in dealing with terrorism," US Treasury Secretary John Snow said at the conclusion of an Asia Pacific economic meeting focused in part on clamping down on terrorist money flows. "The assets of these individuals will be frozen, and financial institutions will not be able to continue to have financial relationships with them. They would be closed off on a global basis from the ability to access financial institutions."

The action identifies 10 individuals "at the heart of the network", Mr Snow said in a statement released in Washington prior to his announcement at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) finance ministers meeting held in Thailand. "These terrorists have worked to achieve Al Qaeda's terrorist goals in south-east Asia," Mr Snow said in the statement. "They have plotted to assassinate international leaders, they have planned and supported attacks such as the Bali bombing - a horrific act that took the lives of 200 people and wounded 300. We look forward to working with our allies in the region to dismantle JI, to shut down their sources of financing and support, and to eliminate the threat that they present to the people of south-east Asia."

The US designation would freeze assets belonging to the 10 JI members in the United States and prohibit all transactions between them and US citizens. The suspects' names would be submitted by Washington to the United Nations early on Friday local time. After 72 hours, providing there were no objections, all UN members would have to freeze the assets. The names on the list were: Yasin Syawal, Mukhlis Yunos, Imam Samudra, Huda bin Abdul Haq (more commonly known as Mukhlas), Parlindungan Siregar, Julkipli Salim Y Salamuddin, Aris Munandar, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, Agus Dwikarna, Abul Hakim Murad. Mr Snow said the nationalities of the 10 would also soon be released. Washington also expected to freeze the assets of another 10 JI suspects whose names have already been forwarded by an as yet unidentified Asian partner to the United Nations, as part of a regional effort.

I'd call the fact that the assets of the ones I recognize off the top of my head — al-Ghozi, Agus, Mukhlis Yunos, Mukhlas, etc. — haven't already been frozen to be an example of bureaucratic ineptitude, as well as evidence that the Treasury department doesn't have an terrorist tracking mechanism even on the rudimentary order of Rantburg/Thugburg. Al-Ghozi was snagged with a suitcase full of explosives in Manila a year and a half ago. He's been arrested, tried, convicted, interrogated, and he's escaped in that time, and now they're getting around to freezing his assets.

Yo! Treasury Department! I'm available to write you a Bad Guy tracking system, cheap!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 08:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad guy tracking system? Puh-leeze, how hard can it be to search for phonetic spellings of "jihad"?
Posted by: flash91 || 09/06/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Apparently to hard for them.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 17:06 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Hamas vows Dire Revenge™
A senior Hamas official has vowed the Islamic group would react to Israel's botched attempt to kill its spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. "The Palestinian people cannot remain silent to such aggressions," Osama Hamdan said, Hamas' representative in Lebanon. "Israel has crossed all red lines and they have opened the gates for a large escalation. This aggression will lead to a new turn of events that nobody can predict for the time being. This incident has also uncovered the bias of the world, which still did not denounce this aggression that also wounded 18 people, including 14 children."
"And 11 puppies, 9 kittens, six baby ducks, and four bunnies..."
Palestinian security and medical sources said wheelchair-bound, 67-year-old Ahmad Yassin was slightly injured in his right shoulder in an Israeli air raid earlier Saturday on a building in downtown Gaza. Another 17 people, most of them women and children, were also wounded in the raid, Palestinian medics said. Mr Hamdan confirmed that Ahmad Yassin was "lightly injured and he is now in stable condition".
Damn. But then, Khaled was stable for almost a month, so I guess there's always hope..."
"He is undergoing treatment," Mr Hamdan said, who did not wish to disclose whether the wounded sheikh had been taken to hospital. Meanwhile, Israel has confirmed it tried to assassinate Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
What's the Hebrew phrase for "Hell, yeah!"?
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir says the aim was to eliminate the militants. "We were after the leaders of Hamas who were convening in a summit of terror in Gaza in order to carry out more terror attacks against the citizens of Israel," Mr Meir said.
This actually represents a new tack for the IDF. Instead of going after all Paleostinian bad guys, they're specifically going after Hamas, and maybe IJ — though I don't think they've banged any IJ leadership this go-around. Hamas blew the bus, and Hamas and IJ were the two groups who specifically rejected the road map. If the al-Aqsa Martyrs want to join in the festivities, that'll probably be allowed, but they're also free to sit around and congratulate themselves it isn't their leadership being banged.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath has described the attack as shocking and horrible, and a backward step for peace. "I think this contributes to further escalation, contributes to further destruction of the chances of the peace process known as the roadmap - it's really terrible," Mr Shaath said.
Note that his denunciation is proforma...
After the evening prayers at Burj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut's suburbs, dozens of Hamas followers staged a demonstration to protest Israel's attempt to kill Yassin. Men shouted anti-Israeli slogans, rolled their eyes and jumped up and down and veiled women carried portraits of the Hamas spiritual leader while children distributed candies to celebrate Yassin's escape from death. In northern Lebanon, two separate demonstrations took place in the Nahr al-Bared and Beddawi refugee camps where residents raised portraits of Yassin, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as well as Palestinian flags.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 18:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe the road map is actually working.
Hamas broke the peace. Now it's getting pounded by the IDF and the EU is turning its back on it. That part of the roadmap wasn't published.
Posted by: Dishman || 09/06/2003 19:04 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder how much that 'demostration' cost to stage. I'm sure the 'followers' cost a bit to hire and the women and children probably commanded premium prices on the mob-for-hire market.

"I think this contributes to further escalation, contributes to further destruction of the chances of the peace process known as the roadmap - it's really terrible," Mr Shaath said.

You dont think bombing a bus was a 'contribution'?

Hamas (and JI and Arafat) has no intention of having peace no matter what they get -- They are addicted to terrorism and murder.
Posted by: GregJ || 09/06/2003 19:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I hope the Mossad has infiltrated the applicable hospital.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Mossad are probably the doctors there. Well, most of the doctors there.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:56 Comments || Top||

#5  If neither Mubarak or Abdullah (of Jordan) say anything for 24 hours after the attack, you will know they tacitly agreed to it.
Posted by: mhw || 09/06/2003 21:02 Comments || Top||

#6  I see the foreign minister of Jordan had a mealy mouth condemnation about an hour ago but the King of Jordan has still said nothing and the head of the Kleptothugracy of Egypt has still said nothing.
Posted by: mhw || 09/06/2003 22:28 Comments || Top||


East Asia
Taiwan independence supporters urge name change : "Taiwan"
Thousands of protesters marched here on Saturday, demanding the island’s official name be changed from the ’Republic of China’ to ’Taiwan’. The marchers converged on the wide boulevard in front of the Presidential Office building for hours of speeches and music.
seems like a good PR move - realizing they’ll never dominate the mainland, and asking for the same recognition
The organisers estimated the crowd at more than 100,000 people.
other estimates said 10’s of thousands
I think that's wire service dialect for "a whole lot."
Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Taiwan’s government kept the name ’Republic of China’, while the communist government in Beijing adopted the name ’People’s Republic of China.’
Last time I was there, Taiwan referred to itself as "a province of the Republic of China," the assumption being somebody else was sitting on the other provinces...
Beijing still claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and threatens to use force if the island declares formal independence. China would see any name change as such a declaration.
They’ll bluster and threaten, no matter what, so go ahead and make an innocuous name change
Former President Lee Teng-hui, 80, expressed his support for the name change. "The Republic of China is not a normal country," Lee said told the crowd. "I hope that one day, I will be able to say out loud, Taiwan is the name of my country." After his speech, crowds shouted his nickname, chanting in English "Uncle Ah-hui, I love you."
There are multiple English-speaking countries, even multiple French-speaking countries. Why not multiple Chinese-speaking (actually writing, with Mandarin as the official dialect) countries?
Current President Chen Shui-bian stayed away from the event. He has favoured independence, but has toned down his views in recent years to appeal to Taiwan’s large pool of moderate voters, who oppose moves that could raise tensions with China. But addressing a meeting of bank employees earlier in the morning, Mr Chen said he would have marched if he wasn’t president. Top officials and lawmakers of his Democratic Progressive Party did appear at the event, however, wearing green, the party colour. But marchers didn’t mind Chen’s absence. Protesters said the island must change its official name to gain a higher international profile.
As one of the more vibrant economies in the area, why not?
The marchers also demanded that the government use the name ’Taiwan’ when it applies to join the United Nations later this month. It will be the island’s 11th attempt to seek admission to the UN. China opposes the move and has used its political clout to block Taiwan’s previous applications.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 4:59:35 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Needs to be changed anyway. Too many chaildren ae confused by the "Made In Taiwan" labels on their toys.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 19:54 Comments || Top||

#2  They change the name, China tries to invade, we intervene and show China all our special toys.

Sounds like fun.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:36 Comments || Top||

#3  The countries should be united...under the Taiwanese Government.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro || 09/06/2003 21:06 Comments || Top||

#4  It's funny when you look at this situation. Why would a people who have been so much more succesful than china, as evidenced by their per capita gdp, want to succumb to a system that has been proven inferior to their own. Shouldn't the chinese be looking at taiwan and say to themselves... wow if only we had their government instead of our own...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 09/06/2003 22:07 Comments || Top||

#5  I currently live in Fort Wayne which is annexing all the wealthy suburbs it can to increase the tax base. I think its the same concept.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:21 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran Says Ties With Britain Could Suffer
Iran warned Britain Friday ties will suffer if London does not release a former Iranian diplomat sought by Argentina in the bombing of a Jewish community center, state-run Tehran TV reported Friday. Iranian-British relations soured following last month's arrest of former Iranian diplomat Hade Soleimanpour in England over the 1994 bombing that killed 85 people in Argentina. State-run Iranian media also said British troops in Iraq are holding two Iranian documentary filmmakers Saeed Aboutaleb and Soheil Karimi. "The continued detention of Soleimanpour and the two documentary filmmakers will leave very destructive effects on the two countries' relations," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi reportedly said. The report said that Kharrazi discusssed the matter by telephone with his British counterpart Jack Straw.
"Hello, Jack? This is Kamal. Cough 'em up."
"No."
"You don't want anything blown up in London, do you?"
"Do I look South American? G'bye."
Last week, a London court ordered Soleimanpour remain in custody until his extradition case beings Sept. 19. Tehran called for his release, saying the charges are politically motivated.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 12:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tehran called for his release, saying the charges are politically motivated.

Nothing like a politically motivated response to a homocidal bombing.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Compromise. Keep the body. Send back the head.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I would keep the head. It's easier to place on the wall.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Do you think the Iranians might slap economic sanctions on the British?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:32 Comments || Top||

#5  What economics? They would just buy Iraqi oil then. Iran has no other source of income, for the most part.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 23:25 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Chechnya Russia’s Internal Matter: Abdullah
Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday called for a peaceful solution to the Chechnya problem but described the crisis as an internal matter for Russia. “We look forward to a settlement of the protracted Chechen issue through peaceful and constitutional means within the framework of the Russian Federation,” the crown prince told the Russian Interfax news agency.
Is he making nice? Or did he really toss the Chechens to the wolves?
Crown Prince Abdullah, who concluded his landmark three-day visit to Moscow on Thursday, highlighted the significance of Saudi-Russian oil cooperation to preserving international oil market stability. “My visit to Russia was primarily aimed at further enhancing bilateral cooperation in various spheres and discussing international and regional issues of mutual concern,” the crown prince said.
There's money involved. Maybe he did...
“Saudi Arabia views Russia as a partner and not as a competitor in the area of oil,” he said. The two countries signed a major agreement for cooperation in the oil and gas sectors during the royal visit. He said the Kingdom was going ahead with its war on terror, adopting comprehensive measures to stamp out terrorism. He urged greater international cooperation in combating terrorism and drying up sources of terrorist funding.
Even if it puts some Soddy banks out of business as usual?
Crown Prince Abdullah declared himself optimistic that the commercial partnership between Saudi Arabia and Russia would be bolstered by technology transfer, increasing investment and joint projects.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 11:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm OK; your OK.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Technology transfer???

Let me guess, nuke facilities.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/07/2003 3:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Iraqi diplo's kid charged as spy
A second son of an Iraqi diplomat was charged yesterday with spying in New York.
Wasim Al-Anbuke, 24, allegedly fed information about two Iraqi dissidents to members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and then lied about it to the FBI.
"So I lied? I'm an Arab. It's a cultural thing..."
His older brother, Raed Al-Anbuke, was busted on similar charges in April. Their father, Rokan Al-Anbuke, was a senior Iraqi diplomat in New York and one of dictator Saddam Hussein's liaisons to the United Nations weapons inspectors. Thomas Nooter, Raed's attorney, said he has been in contact with the father, now a ranking official in the new Iraqi government. "He's pretty angry," Nooter said. "I don't think he knows what he can or can't do. He would like to help."
For startsies, "Gee, I'm so sorry my kid got involved with this sort of thing! Please be lenient with him!"
The brothers appeared before Manhattan Federal Court Judge Michael Mukasey and pleaded not guilty. They were detained March 24 on immigration charges and remain in custody. "He believes the truth will exonerate him," said Olivia Cassin, Wasim's immigration attorney. Raed, 28, is accused of providing Iraqi intelligence agents with information in 2001. The agents reportedly operated out of the Iraqi mission in Manhattan and had been sent here to assassinate dissidents.
"Yes, thank you. I'll take the blindfold... No, no cigarette..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/06/2003 10:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shouldn't we maybe revisit Dad's quailifications for position in the current government?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably can't with everyone demanding we let the Iraqi's handle there own government.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:43 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Missed, dammit! IAF rockets Sheikh Yassin
ABC News/AP article, posted by Frank G...
Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Gaza City strike Saturday, lightly wounding Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin in his hand, Hamas officials said. It was not clear whether Yassin was in a car or in a building when the missiles hit. He is the highest-ranking Hamas official to be targeted by Israel, which has killed 12 members of the group in six missile strikes in the past three weeks. Five bystanders have also been killed in these attacks. Yassin’s car was traveling on the street where the missiles hit, said Abdel Nasser Ramadan, a Palestinian medic.
obviously, it’s still unclear exactly whatup, but the fact they finally went after Yassin is a loud and clear message

And more detail from Jerusalem Post...
Two loud explosions have been heard in Gaza City Saturday afternoon. Initial reports indicate that IAF attack helicopters attacked a north Gaza City building housing a Hamas terrorist who was being visited at the time by Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and another senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.
Hurrah! Even though they missed 'em, it shows they're going after the head of the snake...
Yassin and Haniya were spirited away from the building, which was badly damaged inthe misile strike. Senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi confirmed that Yassin and Haniya were in the targeted building, and said they were both targeted for assassination. Rantissi added that both Yassin and Haniya were injured in the attack. "The Gates of hell are open," Rantissi added.
As opposed to "kinda open," I guess, or "widely cracked"...
Rantissi said Yassin suffered injuries to his hands. Yassin is the highest-ranking Hamas official to be targeted by Israel, which has killed 12 members of the group in six missile strikes in the past three weeks.
Yassin is the highest-ranking Hamas official there is, next to King Fahd...
Witnesses told Israel Radio that Yassin was seen leaving the building shortly before the explosions were heard. Palestinian witnesses in Gaza City said that IAF jets fired missiles at a three-story building in the city. Reports indicate that Haniya was injured in the attack. Yassin managed to flee the building before it was hit.
"Wheel chair, don't fail me now!"

The strike itself, even if it didn't succeed, is cause for ululation and random AK fire...


More followup, from Associated Press...
Yassin was the highest-ranking Palestinian leader ever targeted by Israel, and top fugitives, including Mohammed Deif, No. 1 on Israel's wanted list, were also in the room, security officials told The Associated Press. Yassin was slightly wounded in his right hand, and 15 people were also hurt. Deif, the top fugitive, survived Israel's third attempt on his life; his assistant, Adnan Al-Ghoul, also got away, Israeli security officials said.
Adnan's so aptly named...
The officials said the attack failed because Israel used a smaller bomb to avoid harming civilians. In a July 2002 attack, a warplane dropped a one-ton bomb that killed its target - Hamas military leader Salah Shehadeh - but also 14 bystanders, among them several children, prompting an international outcry. Bodyguards carried Yassin out of the building and he was driven away in his brown four-wheel drive Land Rover. Yassin surfaced at a Gaza City mosque, where he renewed threats of revenge. Yassin, a frail, 68-year-old sheik widely revered among his followers, denied he was meeting with Hamas commanders in the targeted apartment. "Their (the Israelis') intelligence is giving them wrong information, and this is only an excuse to bombard and kill innocent people," Yassin said. "I was visiting my friend."
"We weren't plotting death and destruction. We were having sex... Yes. All three of us... "


Futures: This was like cheating — too close to the fact. I actually thought it would happen later this week. But tu3031 cheated worse than I did. He peeked...
Event: Abbas gets tossed
Group: Paleostinians
Narrative: Mahmoud Abbas vote of no confidence as Arafat tries to reassert power...
Window: 1 Months (10/5/03)
Probability 85% entered by Fred on 9/5/03
Probability 100% entered by tu3031 on 9/6/03
Overall opinion is Highly Probable (92%)
Posted by: Fred & Frank G || 09/06/2003 10:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for cleaning up, Fred. The "wheelchair don't fail me now!" just spurred a new keyboard cleanup LOL.....seeing as how he's blind, hand injuries are gonna be a bother. Notice too they didn't try to bag him in his own home, location well known. Wonder if he's been in hiding too? Bet he is now.....martyrdom is for the....uh....less holy
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm just hoping they got him in the hand he uses to eat with, not the one he uses to wipe his ass with! Please, God, grant me this one wish and I won't bother you with anything else for the next 20 minutes or so.....
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 10:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Doesn't matter to me. If his ass rots off from not being wiped or he starves to death, net result is the same, only one's stinkier than the other.
Posted by: Fred || 09/06/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Wheelchair don't fail me now!

Brilliant -- brought to mind images of Woody Allen in "Sleeper".

With any luck, Rantissi is feeling a bit left out now. Don't worry, Abdel -- we need to keep you in the game for a while to provide the color commentary and play-by-play.
Posted by: snellenr || 09/06/2003 10:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Nah, Fred....I just like the idea of him having to eat @#$% along with his pita. Or of him having to offer that filthy paw whenever he wants to shake hands (who ever would WANT to shake hands with that asshat deserves to have some @#$% on them, too.) I could care less about his ass rotting off! ;)
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 11:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Question for the militarily enlightened out there. (Yes, you! Don't give me that, I see you lurking out there.)Are the Israelis terrible shots? I mean, doesn't the IDF have any decent snipers? All these attacks by missle...why not just get a good sharpsooter to put one in the black? Lot less chance of collateral damage, right? So where am I going wrong?
Posted by: Hodadenon || 09/06/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||

#7  A sniper might get apprehended. An aircraft flys away and leaves you feeling powerless as you rake up the smoking chunks of meat that aren't fit for a cannibals New Year fondu party.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#8  The israelis gotta invent a vibration absorber for helicopters, kinda like what they have on tennis rackets :) Then the sharpshooters could take these little bastards out from the copters and not risk getting captured on the ground. These missle strikes are bad PR, though I'm all for 'em anyway!
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 09/06/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#9  A "holy man" with all his body parts simply ain't doing his job over there. Maybe he'll have it cut off just as a status symbol.
See you next time, scumbag. And there'll be a next time...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:33 Comments || Top||

#10  It's like the Seinfeld wherein George is on the motorized scooter...
Posted by: Brian || 09/06/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#11  ROFL! That was great Fred! I just hope that next-time shrapnel castrates and de-balls him. It would more accurately represent what Rassin really is.
Posted by: Anonymous || 09/06/2003 16:52 Comments || Top||

#12  That was me in the above post. I don't know why it decided to make my name anonymous...

Maybe I've been recruited to put the bullet in Ara-fish's head!
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:53 Comments || Top||

#13  NY Times:
The attack on the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in which 15 people including some children were wounded, prompted vows of retaliation from Hamas. Israel, which used a 550-pound bomb dropped from a warplane, said it was striking not only at Sheik Yassin but also at Hamas terrorists meeting with him.

A senior Israeli security official said the attack failed because the air force used a "relatively small bomb" to minimize civilian casualties.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 17:09 Comments || Top||

#14  It is a damned shame they missed him. Yassin is the Paleocritter who looks just like Saruman, but is more evil than Sauron the Dark lord himself. Go git'em again. And take out the pediatrician of death, Rantisi, next. Pure frikken evil incarnate, these paleocritters give a bad name to T-rex and the velociraptors.
GO IDF!
Posted by: Craig || 09/06/2003 20:15 Comments || Top||

#15  I've been contemplating an idea for some time. I think it's time the United States put it into action.

One of the things the VietCong hated the most were arclight strikes. Three huge B-52D aircraft, operating at 48,000 feet, would drop everything and the kitchen sink into a "box" three miles long and a mile wide. Each Buff carried 106 iron bombs. That's 318 explosions in a very small area. In the Laotian jungle, it took huge trees, broke them into splinters, and then tore the splinters into toothpicks, projected from the explosion at several hundred feet per second.

I think we should make a "demonstration run" down through the Gaza. Break a half-dozen "D" models out of mothballs, refurbish them, load 'em up, and let 'em go.

We then invite every Arab leader in the world to visit Gaza - AFTER the strike. Then we tell them - "Another 9/11, and we do this to every city, town, village, in the country of the people involved. We WILL hold you, the leaders, responsible."

When they finish, Israel can pave it over for a new runway.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 20:18 Comments || Top||

#16  Wishful thinking. We might be realistic enough to want to do that, but others in this country aren't.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 21:00 Comments || Top||

#17  ...I'm gonna stick my neck out and point out that the Israelis very very very rarely ever miss anything...and if they were going to take out someobody as high up the food chain as this guy, it would have been a lot more than just one missile coming after him.
May I suggest that this was an intentional mis intended to make a point?...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/06/2003 21:04 Comments || Top||

#18  Old Patriot

I don't know that Arafat would care. He concern is limitted to number one. I like that GPS technology has allowed us to target specifically the top guys. Unfortunately, the US intelligence services were neutered in the last several decades. We need to take some Isreali industrial "engineers" on a tour of our JDAM factory.

Your B-52 idea would be interesting to do to the Beka Valley. I would still like the Special Ops guys to take that place enmass.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:41 Comments || Top||

#19  Yeah, I peeked. I'd prefer to think of it as "good intelligence".
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 23:17 Comments || Top||

#20  Meaning you cheated. But what is the definition of 'cheating'?
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 23:24 Comments || Top||

#21  Depends on what your definition of "is" is. Oh, wait. That's been done...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 23:32 Comments || Top||

#22  A much bigger missile next time.. The sooner the IDF unleashed it full military arsenal on these vermin the better for Isreal's security. once these scum bags are beaten to pulp then the process of serious peace can be discussed.
Posted by: rbr || 09/06/2003 23:56 Comments || Top||


Hamas terrorist dies of wounds sustained in August IAF missiles strike
JPost - Reg Req’d
Good Riddance

Khaled Massoud, 34, a senior member of Hamas’ military wing Izzadin Al Kassam, died Saturday of wounds he sustained in an Israeli missile strike on August 26 in Gaza City.
Ah! A month of agony, waiting for the end to come in a Paleostinian hospital, attended by maked Hamas nurses. There is a God!
Massoud was active in the development of Hamas’ Kassam rocket program. He died in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital Saturday. Israeli security officials said Massoud’s brother, Tito, a former Hamas member, was killed in an IAF missile attack in June. Officials said both brothers were involved in manufacturing Kassam rockets and launching them against Israel.
Their other brother, Germaine, is pursuing a singing career...
In Gaza, Hamas leaders are increasingly instructing their fighters to take extra precautions. Most of the leaders who have gone underground themselves have shut off their phones or changed their numbers to elude the IDF. Many of them have ceased to make media appearances for fear of being located and killed by the IDF.
That has the side benefit — or is it side? — of making it ever so much more difficult for them to plan and coordinate attacks. They've been pretty ineffectual lately — though something will eventually get through.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:27:32 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But, hey, wait.....doesn't the leadership realize that if you die as a martyr then you get 72 horny virgins in paradise? And lots of food, and things smell of heavenly perfume, and, oh yeah, there's always good stuff on the TV. None of that horrible chick-flick crap.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 09/06/2003 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Officials said both brothers were involved in manufacturing Kassam rockets and launching them against Israel.

Looks like "work accidents" galore on the horizon. One can only hope. Woe is Mutual of Gaza City...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 14:39 Comments || Top||

#3  "Ah! A month of agony, waiting for the end to come in a Paleostinian hospital, attended by maked Hamas nurses. There is a God! "

August 26 to September 6 is a total of 11 days. Have months become shorter suddenly?
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 21:03 Comments || Top||


Abbas resigns
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his resignation to President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials told CNN. Abbas has been locked in a power struggle with Arafat since taking office four months ago. Arafat is still considering the resignation, said Jibril Rajoub, Arafat’s National Security Adviser. Earlier a Palestinian official told CNN Arafat had accepted the resignation.
Bet his jaw started flapping.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will play a caretaker role of the position until a new prime minister is sworn in, Palestinian Legislative Council member Saeb Erakat told CNN Radio. "I think this is a moment for us as Palestinians, I think now we have to look at the options available," Erakat said. "How Arafat will deal with the resignation — will he accept it, reject it, will he ask Abu Mazen to form a new cabinet? These are the questions we need to be concentrating on now."
Will he go to Disney World? No he won’t.
CNN’s Matthew Chance said that Abbas was giving the reasons for his decision to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in a closed door session which began at noon Saturday. Arafat is expected to address the council in a separate session around 6 p.m. Erakat said. Earlier, Erakat said Abbas’ resignation "is not an option," but acknowledged it was up to the prime minister to make that decision. The announcement of Abbas’s plans to quit came after 18 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council initiated a no-confidence motion for Abbas’ government to take place within the next two weeks, Erakat said. Abbas wanted control over security forces to help rein in militant groups that carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis. He has said he would not lift arms against the groups, but instead would seek to end their attacks through discussions.
Yeah. That worked.
Arafat has not been willing to cede power over the security forces.
Huh? I don’t really understand that sentence, except that Arafat hasn’t been willing to cede anything to anybody, unfortunately.

This is Yasser's final kick at the corpse of the road map. In a rational world, his acceptance of Abbas' forced resignation should be his ticket to St Helena. In the actual world, he's banking on the idea that he can get enough Eurodips to buy the "elected president of the Paleostinian pee-pul" line to let him get away with putting a real puppet in the PM slot and retaining all the actual power himself. My guess is that he's got a better than 50-50 chance of pulling it off — and life in Intifadaland will return to Paleonormal.


Followup, from Associated Press:
In Ramallah, there was confusion throughout the day about whether Arafat had accepted Abbas' resignation - and if he had, whether his decision was final. The veteran Palestinian leader had told a large gathering of legislators and Cabinet ministers that Abbas was now heading a caretaker government, implying Arafat agreed with his prime minister's decision. But he stopped short of confirming this in writing, as required by law.
"Put my name on paper? We-e-e-ellll, I dunno..."
An Abbas confidante, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister told him he felt abandoned by all sides and was deeply hurt by the events of the recent days. Abbas told a closed-door session of parliament that he would not change his mind. Reading from a prepared statement, he explained why he quit. Israel, he said, had not carried out its obligations under the road map, the United States had not enforced Israeli compliance and his detractors at home had constantly undermined him with "harsh and dangerous" incitement.
Yasser had his chance, and he blew it. As usual.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 7:27:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since Israel's made it loudly clear they will not deal with Arafat I'd put the odds at 75% Yasshole's gone to Soddy or whatever country will hold his grimy hand. The Paleos never miss an opportunity...

Crush.Them.Now
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmmm? Israel responds - Fox breaking news Yassin injured - 2 explosions from F16s in Gaza City. Developing, as they say
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Jpost:
Two loud explosions have been heard in Gaza City Saturday afternoon. Initial reports indicate that IAF attack helicopters were spotted in the area at the time. Israel Radio reported that IAF helicopters attacked a building in Gaza City housing a Hamas leader, possibly the movement's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, according to the radio. Witnesses told Israel Radio that Yassin was seen leaving the building shortly before the explosions were heard.

damn...I hope not. regardless, he knows he's not off limits....now Yasser, and as a personal favor? Saeb Erekat...I just can't stand the lying asshole
Posted by: Frank G || 09/06/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Winds of Change posted this article by Tarek Heggy that explains that Arabs are unable to compromise because there is no word for compromise in Arabic. The closest approximation is the Arabic word for capitulate. In game theory that makes Arabs sucectable to "zero sum" thinking. One of my best friends and coworkers at another place I worked was Jordanian. I watched him negotiate concessions from vendors that really hurt them. Unsucessfully tried to convince him that screwing vendors was a bad long-term strategy. Maybe language was the reason.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 12:45 Comments || Top||

#5  When Yassholes dead there might, might, be a chance at peace. Until then, forget the roadmap or anything else you want to call it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Please. This wasn't a "power struggle". A real one would have factions fighting it out, and there have been no such incidents because Mazen wasn't willing to do his thing without the old terrorist-in-charge's blessing.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/06/2003 16:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Give it a week. Abbas will be back, along with 'incentive-concessions' from Washington
Posted by: Pappy || 09/06/2003 19:44 Comments || Top||

#8  There might be quite a few dead Hamas leaders by the end of the week. It might be easier for Abbas to crackdown on a bunch of corpses. Maybe only the Hamas bowling team will be left.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Somebody remind IDF to put nitrogliceron in the bowling balls.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 21:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Why spare the bowling team?
Posted by: Rafael || 09/06/2003 21:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Thank you, Rafael

Unbelievable. I try to come up with as bizarre a scenario as possible, but Hamas is stranger than even I can conceive. If the football team is a bunch of assassins, exactly what element of Hamas were the French saying, wasn't terrorist?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 22:46 Comments || Top||

#12  The ones that give them bribes.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 23:21 Comments || Top||

#13  Abbas told a closed-door session of parliament that he would not change his mind. Reading from a prepared statement, he explained why he quit. Israel, he said, had not carried out its obligations under the road map, the United States had not enforced Israeli compliance and his detractors at home had constantly undermined him with "harsh and dangerous" incitement.

Uh huh. No mention of Mazen's unwillingness (or failure, if you will) to live up to HIS end of the deal, which was to dismantle Hamas and all the other sundry terrorist organizations within his borders. Israel is expected to live up to its part of the agreements, and the U.S. is expected to force Israel to live up to its part of the agreements, but Mazen won't live up to his obligations and that just isn't the problem. EVERYBODY ELSE is at fault but him.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/07/2003 4:00 Comments || Top||


Korea
N. Korea Chemicals Expert Said Detained in China
A North Korean biological weapons expert has been detained while trying to slip into the Australian consulate in China’s southern city of Guangzhou to seek political asylum, an anti-Pyongyang activist said on Saturday. Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor-turned-activist, said plainclothes security agents had detained Ri Chae Woo, who planned to testify in the United States against Pyongyang’s chemical and biological weapons program.
I’ll bet that seriously upset the Chinese.
Vollertsen, quoted on a human rights Web site, said Ri had evidence of human experiments in North Korea.
Oh, Lord, does the depravity there have a bottom?
While North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has been a top international concern recently, the Hermit Kingdom reclusive state is also believed to be capable of making large amounts of chemical weapons such as nerve, blister and choking agents. Ri had worked for the Chiha-ri Chemical Corp in Anbyon, south of Wonsan, North Korea, until June 2003 when he and his wife and two teenage children fled to China, Vollertsen said.``He (Ri) was disguised in the uniform of maintenance staff of the building which houses the consulate,’’ Vollertsen said in a statement on the Chosun Journal Web site, which promotes human rights in North Korea.``He was apprehended in the fire escape stairwell, his family members escaped via a nearby fast food restaurant and are at large,’’ Vollertsen said.
Rats, that close.
Guangzhou police declined to comment, and the Australian consulate was not immediately available for comment. Activists say up to 300,000 North Korean refugees are hiding in northeast China after slipping across the border to flee hunger, poverty and repression in their Communist homeland. Defectors say North Korean refugees who are sent home face imprisonment, torture or death.
Ri’s a dead man within minutes if they send him back.
China has an agreement with its neighbor to repatriate North Koreans, whom it views as economic migrants — not refugees. But to avert Western criticism, China has allowed many North Korean asylum seekers to leave for South Korea via third countries. Last year, more than 1,000 North Koreans reached South Korea via China and other countries. Since last year, China has allowed more than 150 asylum seekers, who have fled to foreign embassies and schools in China, to leave and ultimately reach South Korea.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 1:26:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  " Vollertsen, quoted on a human rights Web site, said Ri had evidence of human experiments in North Korea "

That explains Kimmmys looks. He got too close during a human rights violation and crime against humanity experiment.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Glad the guy only made it to China. If he had made it to freedom NK might have threatened us all.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Human experiments?

Faster, please.

Posted by: Sade || 09/06/2003 16:25 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Liberian Ex-Leader Stole $3 Million as He Left, U.N. Aide Says
Charles G. Taylor, who was forced out as president of Liberia on Aug. 11 and flew to exile in Nigeria, took with him $3 million donated for disarming and demobilizing thousands of armed combatants, a senior United Nations official said today. The sum is roughly equal to six months of current government revenues in Liberia, by any measure one of the poorest nations on earth.
Chuckles emptied the vault on the way out? Wonder if anyone thought to put a guard there? Nah, that would be too easy!
The senior United Nations official here, Jacques P. Klein, the special representative of Secretary General Kofi Annan, described the theft and said the donor was an Asian nation. Other government officials said it was Taiwan. Taiwan is the only Asian country with both an embassy in Monrovia and close ties to the former Taylor administration. Taiwanese officials could not be reached for comment here, nor could Mr. Taylor.
That’ll teach ’em.
Mr. Klein sent this message to a radio audience today: "I would say to the belligerents out there who may be listening to us, `It’s your money, guys.’" The administration of Mr. Taylor was known for suave conduct in public and brutal behavior in private.
Suave? Chuckles?
Just a pious Baptist preacher, serving his pee-pul...
Now the extent of his stealing is becoming clear. In an interview, Mr. Klein said senior members of the Taylor administration were now seeking bribes from European Union officials who are trying to import desperately needed fuel to run electric generators. Monrovia has had no functioning power system for almost a decade, the consequence of 14 years of fighting. Mr. Klein said he would go to New York on Saturday and ask the United Nations Security Council for a mandate to send 15,000 peacekeepers to Liberia for at least a year. A Council vote is expected the week of Sept. 15. The first of the new peacekeepers could be here in October, with the goal of isolating and disarming the warring factions. The factions are not making war on each other now, but they are terrorizing civilians, driving them from their villages.
Oh... They weren't doing that before?
Mr. Klein and American officials here said any future American military role in Liberia might be confined to a small group of trainers, either soldiers or government contractors, sent to try to shape up the remnants of the Liberian Army. A small contingent of Marines stationed here since Aug. 15 is to leave on Oct. 1, two weeks before a new transitional government takes power. "The United States, even if it cannot make the commitment itself, should encourage other countries to stay for the long term, to help us out," said Mr. Klein, a retired United States Air Force major general.
No problem. "Hey guys, stick around, okay?" There, that ought to do it.
The question of money is crucial in Monrovia. No one knows who will put up the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to rebuild the nation.
Why did I just feel a twinge of pain in my wallet?
The capital has been all but destroyed, as have hundreds of Liberian villages, by the civil war that Mr. Taylor started in 1989 as he fought his way to power and the presidency in 1997. Rebel forces began to attack Mr. Taylor’s government in 1999; this summer they laid siege to Monrovia for 10 weeks. "We need money desperately," said Mr. Klein, who hopes to convene international donors in Paris this fall.
"And we’ll lock the safe this time!"
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 1:20:56 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  " And who will have the key? "

" I will, of course! I also request a private jet for...... traveling purposes. "

$10 says France and Germany demands asks us to send 3/4 of the troops and half the bill, on top of demanding letting them plunder oversee the oil operations in Iraq.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I sad that he looted the treasuree and only came up with $3M. Liberia should look at some non-traditional ways to generate revenue like:

1. Asking for other countries to donate old video cameras. Their citizens could then begin mass submissions to Funniest Home Videos. Odds are there some pretty funny stuff happening on their unrepaired roads as many of their vehicles don't look well maintained.
2. Ask for donations of plywood and shopping carts so that they can found a new "Extreme" sport that they can then market to ESPN.
3. Challenge Nigeria for leadership in the bogus E-mail scam market.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Liberia was founded by people in the United States as a homeland for freed slaves and others that wanted to return to Africa. I think it's about time the black community in the United States began supporting their brothers in Africa. There are hundreds of black rap stars, movie stars, basketball, football, and baseball players, all of which have very large incomes. There are hundreds of black churches in America. I'm sure one or more of them could 'adopt' a village in Liberia, and make substantial improvements for those living there. If others want to help out, let them. We are a generous people, but I'm tired of being robbed to support a crooked government (the United Nations) and its millions of ways to siphon money away from those that really need it. A one-on-one grassroots program will do far more good than another UN Fiasco ™.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/06/2003 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  $10 says France and Germany demands asks us to send 3/4 of the troops and half the bill, on top of demanding letting them plunder oversee the oil operations in Iraq.

There's a Rantburg Future if I ever saw one.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Old Patriot,

Which rebel faction be sponsored by the Bloods?
Will the be midnight basketball?

Honestly, Bill Clinton drafted Jesse Jackson to "handle" the developing unrest in Liberia. Jesse decided that America should befriend Taylor and assist his regime. I can't say that Liberia needs to much more help from the African-American community.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#6  He'll be severely punished for this won't he? Suuuuuuuuuure he will...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/06/2003 13:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Look, the fact is, the African American Community is more concerned about cashing in on there great-great-great grandfather's suffering in slavery ( Otherwise known as the 'Reperations movement').

If they really cared, they would have sent money AND volunteers over there to break it up themselves. Or ask our government to break it up.

Instead, they send Jesse 'adulter' Jackson and a bunch of promises. And I don't believe that the NAACP has even made a public outcry about this. Instead, they're worried about slavery and civil rights. I just wish they would shut up and stop giving the racist exactly what they want - attention.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 16:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Ahh,Charlie the NAACP are racists. Do you think that,as a dirt poor White guy,I could get any help from the NAACP.Last time I looked white is a color too.
Posted by: raptor || 09/07/2003 7:53 Comments || Top||


Latin America
EU Condemns Human Rights Record in Cuba
And if that doesn’t work they’ll strongly condemn it.
Demanding Fidel Castro release political prisoners, the European Parliament on Friday condemned human rights violations in Cuba. A resolution by the European Union legislators criticized ``the continuing flagrant violation of the civil and political human rights and the fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists.’’ On Wednesday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country holds the EU presidency, told the legislature that the human rights situation continues to deteriorate on the Caribbean island.
Ah! The Italians are the drivers! That explains it...
In July, Castro said his country would no longer accept aid from the EU, accusing it of backing the anti-Castro policy of the United States.
Fi-del actually got one right!
EU members have already agreed to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events on the island. Since 1993, the EU has provided over $156 million in aid to Cuba. In Havana, nine political dissidents meeting with German lawmakers hailed the resolution. The German legislators were part of a delegation visiting Cuba for a two-week international environmental conference sponsored by the United Nations. ``We all support the resolution,’’ Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident for more than three decades who spent four years in Cuban prisons, told The Associated Press. This spring, Cuba sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years in a crackdown on the opposition. The prison terms were condemned by governments and human rights organization around the globe. The Cuban government defended the crackdown as a necessary defense against U.S. attempts to change the island’s socialist system.
Let’s see if the EU can keep a stiff spine on this one.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/06/2003 12:28:26 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  >>Let’s see if the EU can keep a stiff spine on this one.<<

For what? All they're going to do is flap their gums, what do they need a spine for?
Posted by: g wiz || 09/06/2003 2:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Funny, I could have sworn that the only human rights violations this spring were by us in Guantanomo...
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 3:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Repent before it is too late; sinnners! The day pigs will fly is neeeeeeeearing!
Posted by: JFM || 09/06/2003 4:48 Comments || Top||

#4  The EU has come out against Hamas and Cuba in the same day. Have I entered the alternate reality they used to show on Star Trek where Spock and the crew of the enterprise were evil?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/06/2003 20:14 Comments || Top||

#5  If that's the case, then Hollywood is liberal in every dimension.
Posted by: Charles || 09/06/2003 20:54 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2003-09-06
  Missed, dammit! IAF rockets Sheikh Yassin
Fri 2003-09-05
  U.S. Says Talibs on the Run, 70 to 100 Toe Tags
Thu 2003-09-04
  Army raids suspected rebel hide-out in Indian Kashmir - 7 Dead
Wed 2003-09-03
  Caucasus train boom kills four
Tue 2003-09-02
  Car boom at Baghdad cop shop
Mon 2003-09-01
  Two more Hamas snuffied zapped in Gaza
Sun 2003-08-31
  Five Paks held in Thailand for terrorist links
Sat 2003-08-30
  Two more Hamas snuffies zapped
Fri 2003-08-29
  Hakim boomed in Najaf
Thu 2003-08-28
  Ashkelon hit by Palestinian Kassam missile
Wed 2003-08-27
  Coalition Daisy Cuts Talibase?
Tue 2003-08-26
  Israel Rockets Gaza City Targets
Mon 2003-08-25
  Bombay boom kills at least 42
Sun 2003-08-24
  IAF bangs four Hamas bigs
Sat 2003-08-23
  Paleos urge Israel to join new hudna

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