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Damascus: No secret contacts with Israel
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Afghanistan
Mentally ill ex-Taliban official arrested
A former Taliban official recently arrested by the Afghan government from Ghazni province and charged with murder of President Hamid Karzai's father is mentally handicapped. Asadullah Saddozai was apprehended along with Mulla Shaheedkhel, a former deputy education minister and 80 other Taliban supporters after being accused of planning terrorist attacks. The Afghan interior ministry later said in a statement that the men were receiving money from Pakistani cities of Quetta and Karachi.
Comes as a surprise, huh?
It alleged that the detained Taliban were involved in burning of schools, distribution of anti-US leaflets and other anti-state activities.
Gotta burn those schools. Leave them running and Islam won't be a religion of bliss...
Saddozai, who used to work in the intelligence department in the Taliban regime, was specifically charged with the murder of Abdul Ahad Karzai, father of President Hamid Karzai, and a former Mujahideen commander Sarkatib. The senior Karzai was murdered some years ago in Quetta while Sarkatib, who was loyal to former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was slain in Kandahar. According to some Pakistan-based Afghans including a journalist, Saddozai had become mentally ill more than a year ago and visited Peshawar to seek medical treatment.
Cheeze. How do you tell when these guys become mentally ill? Their turbans unravel?
They said that Saddozai was under treatment of leading psychiatrists in Peshawar for sometime and was still on medication.
"Huh huh. Want shome more medication, Saddo?"
"Why, yesh, thank you, doctor... Hey! You got more'n I did!"
They felt Saddozai on account of his mental illness spoke incoherently and made fantastic claims.
"I know how to read and write! I've never killed anybody just for fun! My mother loves me!"
Some of his claims were that he was the one who murdered Karzai's father, Sarkatib and other anti-Taliban commanders and politicians. It isn't known if the Afghan authorities holding Saddozai have found out by now that Saddozai is mentally healthy or ill.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 07:33 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We could tell he was because he was especially holy, ya know? Spittle flew like a lawn sprinkler from the guy
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 20:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Thought this was a prerequisite to be in the Taliban.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Isn't the use of the term "Mentally Ill" in relation to the Taliban a redundancy?
Posted by: Anonymous Troll || 05/07/2003 21:40 Comments || Top||

#4  The government maintains Asadullah "The Chin" Saddozai's habit of wandering around Peshawar in pajamas while babbling incoherently and claiming to hear voices is an act to conceal his role as an intelligence operative of the Taliban regime, the most powerful in Afghanistan.
Posted by: snellenr || 05/07/2003 21:49 Comments || Top||


2 Hekmatyar "Associates" Held in Afghanistan
American troops in southeast Afghanistan have seized two people suspected of links to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is on a US list of wanted terrorists, a US military spokesman said yesterday. A Special Forces patrol near Gardez, 100 kilometers south of Kabul, on Tuesday "took two people under control believed to be associated with the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar group," US Air Force Lt. Col. Douglas Lefforge told reporters. The same patrol also found land mine booby traps near Gardez, capital of Paktia province which borders Pakistan, but Lefforge said the two detainees were not connected with them.
"Nope. They were connected with a completely different set of land mines..."
Lefforge said the two were identified as being associated with Hekmatyar from photographs or documents relating to his extremist group. He was unable to say whether they were important captives.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 07:08 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Request for 'release' rejected
The Kuwait Court of Appeals Wednesday adjourned to June 10, 2003, to look into the appeal of four men, convicted for threatening national security - Mohsen Al-Fadli, Maqboul Fahad Fahhad Al-Maqboul, Mohamed Jomaan Safaq Al-Mutairi and Adel Yousef Ibraheem Bu Hameed - and to hear the testimony of the arresting officer.
These are the guys who went on trial in January for al-Qaeda links...
At the beginning of the session, lawyers for the convicts requested the court to release three men on any guarantee, but their request was turned down. The four men have been convicted of planning to inflict damage on Kuwait’s political status. They are also accused of joining the armed forces of a third country to engage in combat operation against another country. Al-Fadhli and Al-Maqboul are convicted of receiving training in the use of arms and ammunition for illegal purposes. Al-Fadhli and Bu Hameed have also been convicted of agreeing to do harm to a foreign country without legal permission. Al-Mutairi was convicted of distributing publications harmful to national interests. On Feb 3, 2003, the Criminal Court found the men guilty and sentenced them to five years in prison. However the court had acquitted the men of distributing publications without permission.
"You can't prove we went to Afghanistan! All the witnesses are dead!"
"You can't prove I ain't givin' you five years in jug, either!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 06:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


50 Percent of Saudis can’t get it up
Cialis, the almond-shaped yellow-colored pill to treat erectile dysfunction, is to be formally launched in the Kingdom today following approval by the Ministry of Health. Saudi Arabia is the first country in the region to permit marketing of Cialis, which is said to be effective in the treatment of mild to severe cases of erectile dysfunction. According to a group of medical experts, 50 percent of men over 45 years of age in the Kingdom are believed to suffer from sexual dysfunction or weaknesses.
Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 01:13 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, when you're trying to boff your third wife via arranged marriage who's your half sister, who's also your second cousin....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Give 'em Juche and that will get their yardarms rigged right......
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Think the inbreeding thing might cause some guilt pangs leading to other ummmmmmmmm problems?.....NAH, me neither.
Maybe WHITE SLAG might be good for what ails them.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#4  White Slag - why does that sound like the name of an 80's hair band?
Posted by: Raj || 05/07/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like Erectile Dysfunction Based Policy.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/07/2003 15:41 Comments || Top||

#6  tu3031 has mentioned a prevalent problem in Saudi Arabia that needs more exposure; the tribal customs of intermarriage have produced a great many congenital defects directly attributable to genetic flaws being enhanced from inbreeding.
Posted by: MommaBear || 05/07/2003 15:58 Comments || Top||

#7  I think the 50% figure is the general worldwide estimate. The words "or weakness" allows a lot more people to be included than the word "dysfunction". The general estimate is based on people marketing viagra substitutes.
Posted by: mhw || 05/07/2003 16:03 Comments || Top||

#8  "... Give 'em Juche and that will get their yardarms rigged right......"

Don't think that'll work, AP - you can't ululate juche.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/08/2003 0:43 Comments || Top||


Saudi Seeks 19 Suspected Militants After Arms Haul
Saudi police said on Wednesday they were hunting for 19 suspected militants, mainly Saudis, believed to be hiding in the capital Riyadh after a shoot-out with security forces late on Tuesday. The Interior Ministry said in a statement read out on Saudi state television that police had also found a huge cache of explosives, hand grenades, ammunition and machineguns after storming what they said was the "terrorists' lair."
I've always wanted a "lair".
It named 17 of the men as Saudi citizens, one Iraqi with Canadian and Kuwaiti passports, and a Yemeni. Many of the Saudis appeared to be from the same family.
It's the inbreeding.
The television gave a telephone hotline to report any information that would lead to the men's capture. Saudi television showed large metal containers of what appeared to be explosive material as well as handbags stuffed with grenades. It also displayed passports and identity cards as well as a bag full of disguises, including colorful wigs.
Wearing a blonde wig will help you blend into the crowd, not!
The statement said the men were linked to a March explosion in the capital in which a Saudi man was killed. Police later said the victim had received explosives training in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda was based.
Busy place, those Afghan training camps.
Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally (?) and the birthplace of Islam, has witnessed a spate of attacks against Westerners. Last week, a gunman, believed to be a Saudi in naval uniform, shot and wounded a U.S. civilian working at a naval base in the kingdom.
"Do it somewhere else" seems to be the Saudi policy.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 08:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  you would think, following the Reuter's stylebook, they would've said: ... a key U.S. "ally"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  No, Reuter's only puts those quote marks around things they don't believe.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  ...but remember, boys. If you use those colorful wigs? Get rid of the beards and the moustaches. That's a dead giveaway.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  More alcohol smugglers.

Do you have to belong to a faction to have a lair?
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 9:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, Chuck. No Faction fractions need apply. Full Factions only.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6 
This has become the topic of the office discussion today. Can you say a faction of "freedom fighters", a lair of "terrorists", a gander of geese, a rant of Reuters?

Ah maybe we should just get back to work.
Posted by: john || 05/07/2003 12:19 Comments || Top||

#7  A truckfull of Turkmens?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:01 Comments || Top||

#8  "Is it carved out of a volcano, like I asked?"
Posted by: mojo || 05/07/2003 13:23 Comments || Top||

#9  ...They're still having that lair sale at www.villainsupply.com .

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/08/2003 0:44 Comments || Top||


Europe
Rice Says France, Germany Took NATO ’Hostage’
Ahhh yes, the Reuters sneer quotes are back
U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice disparaged France for taking NATO "hostage" over Iraq and for threatening smaller countries with reprisals if they backed Washington's war to oust Saddam Hussein. "Nobody should take NATO hostage," Rice said in an interview with four Spanish newspapers published on Wednesday.
We don't want to have to kill the hostage, but ....
"It was very unsettling that Germany and France tried to prevent NATO from reinforcing the security of Turkey. There were many unsettling things in that process," she told Spanish national newspapers El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia. While saying that France and Germany would remain U.S. allies, Rice also said France did more to divide Europe over Iraq than did the United States. "The United States did not divide the Europeans...It wasn't us that threatened smaller countries with reprisals nor tried to shut up the countries of Eastern Europe," Rice said in reference to France.
Heh heh, remember that New Europe?
In the run-up to the war in Iraq, France actively lobbied smaller countries on the U.N. Security Council to reject a resolution that would have approved the use of force. French President Jacques Chirac also took to task future members of the European Union from Eastern Europe for backing the United States on Iraq when they could have remained silent. In what was seen as the biggest crisis within NATO for decades, France and Germany delayed a military aid package for Turkey that was meant to bolster its defenses before the war in Iraq.
Just reminding everyone before the attempts at rapprochement and revisions to history begin
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 10:08 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've been to France. A very pretty place. They do these wonderful little stuffed tomatoes there that are the bomb. We must all go there and drink red wine and eat stuffed tomatoes. Come Fritz.
Posted by: Lucky || 05/07/2003 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Lucky if you are an american then you are a traitor! go live in france - with the terrorists carrying french passports!

bastards!
Posted by: Dan || 05/07/2003 11:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I think that was Lucky's tongue in cheek
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Whoa! Easy Dan...put down the pork chop and no-one gets hurt. Good. I hope you feel better now that you got that out of your system. Whew! You had us worried for a minute, big guy!
Posted by: Watcher || 05/07/2003 21:00 Comments || Top||

#5  I've been there too. The nicest people there were refugees from other countries. I didn't like France even then, and wouldn't go back there. The clearest memories are of people trying to shortchange me, rude people, and an overall sense that the whole country was so focused on past greatness that they couldn't get into the present. I couldn't wait to get out.
Posted by: Anonymous Troll || 05/07/2003 21:52 Comments || Top||

#6  If you're really in the mood to get treated like this, save the money and just head up to Montreal.
Try dealing with eskimos with a superiority complex.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 22:10 Comments || Top||


Schroeder to Cut Short Asia Trip to Meet Powell
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will cut short a trip to Asia next week to be back in time for a visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell as Berlin tries to patch up ties hurt by its anti-war stance. Schroeder aims to return early on May 16, when Powell is expected in the German capital, his spokesman Bela Anda told a government news conference on Wednesday. They will be able to meet provided Schroeder returns punctually. A foreign ministry spokesman said planning for Powell's visit was still in the early stages and talks with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer are the only appointment fixed so far. Powell is visiting Germany during a trip to the Middle East, Russia and Bulgaria. He will be the most senior U.S. official to visit Germany since relations soured over Berlin's vocal opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Schroeder is expected to meet President Bush for the first time in months at the end of May at a summit in Russia and again at a G8 summit in France in early June.
That G8 summit should be a blast - hope we have some evidence of Iraqi-French perfidy held back for the day before the summit starts
Schroeder leaves on Saturday for Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam and had originally been due to return on May 17. The size of his delegation has been reduced because of the outbreak of the SARS virus in the region.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 09:13 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, Colin, have his temperature taken before you meet him and wash your hands after.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 9:47 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
21 shot dead by separatist rebels in Tripura
India: At least 21 people were shot dead and eight wounded in two attacks early Wednesday by tribal rebels in India's insurgency-driven northeastern state of Tripura, sources said. Rebels from the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) dragged sleeping villagers from their houses in Fimnacherra village, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Tripura's capital Agartala, lined them up and shot them at close range, said Gautam Das, chief of Tripura's counterinsurgency unit. Nineteen — including women and children — died on the spot while eight villagers were severely wounded, he said. In the second attack, two people were gunned down by members of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), near Agartala early Wednesday. Both the ATTF and the NLFT are outlawed groups fighting for the past decade for an independent homeland for Tripura's tribal community.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 04:07 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Government Freezes Kuwaiti Charity's Assets
Government has ordered a freeze on bank accounts belonging to a Kuwaiti aid organization that is suspected of having links to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The United Nations requested in March that the Lajnah al-Dawah al-Islamia group's assets be held, Pakistani central bank spokesman Syed Wasimudin said. He declined to give further details or say when the freeze was imposed. An Arab official of the group who spoke on condition of anonymity said the order came after the group was accused of having ties to al-Qaida. He denied the charges. The group began feeling effects of the order last week when banks in the northwest border town of Peshawar refused to cash employees' paychecks. The intelligence sources believe the group was run by Abu Hafs, the brother of al-Qaida's No. 3 man, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, during the 1980s to fund Islamic militants.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 04:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Government, primitives agree to cooperate
The tribal tension in Dera Bugti and adjoining tribal areas was defused when Governor Balochistan Lt. General (Retired) Abdul Qadir Baloch and Chief Secretary Balochistan held successful parleys with the elders of Bugti tribe headed by Nawab Akbar Bugti.
"Yar! We be Bugtis! Who be ye, stranger?"
After the talks, the Bugtis called off their prolonged strike and assured the government that they would fully cooperate to normalize the situation in the area provided the government takes practical steps towards implementation of the previous agreements signed between the elders and representatives of the Bugti tribe and the oil and gas exploration companies.
"We wants our rake-off, see?"
The governor assured that grievances of the people of Dera Bugti would be redressed on top priority. He also assured that oil and gas exploring companies, particularly the PPL, SNGPL and SSGPL would be asked to provide jobs to children of deceased or retired employees, said Taj Muhammad Mondrani Bugti, a labour leader.
"We be Bugtis! We can't be 'spected to git our hands dirty, 'cept when beatin' our wimmin!"
"We'll just send 'em the checks..."
"Checks? We don't take no checks! Bags o' gold 'r nothin'!"
The governor also met chief of the Bugti Tribe Nawab Muhammad Akbar Bugti and assured him that government would force the OGDC, SNGPL, SSGPL, PPL and other companies involved in oil and gas exploration to take measures for the uplift of the living standard of the residents of the areas neighbouring the gas/oil fields, provision of gas, electricity, educational and health facilities at their doorstep and provision of jobs to educated people of the area.
"Yessir! That's right, all you Bugtis! Lookee here! We got a warshin' machine for every porch! And cars for your front yards — we'll even deliver the blocks to set 'em on! All y'gotta do is stop torchin' the gas pipeline!"
"But we c'n still pot them Mazari varmints, cain't we?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 03:40 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Which one's which???
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "provide jobs to children of deceased or retired employees"
But,but...that's chronisiam.Someone,quick,call the Affimative Action hotline.Help us Msz.Sarrandon.
Posted by: raptor || 05/08/2003 7:38 Comments || Top||


Pakistan Spy Chief in Difficult Talks with CIA
Pakistan’s chief spy, head of the famous Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), General Ehsan ul Haq, will be spending the next 3-4 days with his counterparts in the American CIA, discussing issues crucial to the future of Pak-US and Indo-Pakistan relations.

His visit, at the invitation of the CIA Chief, will be his first but will be following a pattern of similar visit by previous ISI chiefs. At least two of them, Lt. General Khwaja Ziauddin and Lt. General Mahmood Ahmed, were removed from ISI shortly after they returned to Pakistan. Ziauddin was first named army chief by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but was not allowed by General Musharraf to take over and was arrested. Mahmood was retired shortly before the US launched its attacks on Afghanistan in October because of his suspected links with Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership. He was said to be under house arrest for some days, a fact which he did not deny when he presented himself before Islamabad journalists at a rare dinner he hosted for them last week.

General Ehsan’s visit comes at a time when Washington is pressing Pakistan hard to stop what the Indians call cross-border terrorism and Pakistanis describe as indigenous freedom struggle of the Kashmiris. Pakistan has also climbed down from its position of “No talks” before the “Core Issue” of Kashmir was on the table. Islamabad has also offered to resume trade and many other ‘confidence building measures”, CBMs as they are called, to ease tensions in the region and start a dialogue on Kashmir with Prime Minister Vajpayee’s government who says he is giving Pakistan the last chance of a peaceful solution.

But General Ehsan will have a hard time first explaining and then assuring his hosts that his organization would not repeat what many US and western intelligence experts allege was a “double game” played by ISI, with US and with India. Under the new scenario, ISI will have to ensure that the outlawed terrorist outfits active in Indian held Kashmir do not get support from Pakistan in any form or shape, something which will be very hard for General Ehsan to guarantee. The State Department recently declared Sipah e-Sahaba and more importantly Hizbul Mujahideen, the militant wing of now politically powerful Jamaat e-Islami, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), besides others. This means it will now be ISI’s duty to ensure that these outfits do not operate inside Pakistan, do not raise funds or manpower, do not supply the Kashmiri fighters with weapons and money and do not cross the Line of Control.

Coupled with these tough demands on Kashmir, the US side would also seek assurances and guarantees that ISI was not playing a double game on the western border with Afghanistan where General Pervez Musharraf last week claimed Osama bin Laden may still be alive and hiding. The biggest challenge to General Ehsan would be the demand, in some form or shape, to purge the ISI of fanatics and radicals at the middle and lower ranks. Or if that has already been done, provide evidence that the purge was real and effective. General Ehsan would also be making a lot of explanations as researchers and academics have been making serious allegations against his organization and its role, in both pre and post 9/11 periods. One such research, done by Michel Chossudovsky, a Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa for the Center for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montréal, Canada, accused the ISI and General Mahmood of being in direct link with Mohammed Atta, the main 9/11 hijacker.
I don't neccesarily believe it, but Ahmed Omar Sheikh's allegedly claimed that he had been informed of the 9/11 attacks before they happened, and that as an ISI asset he passed his information on to his superiors.
Writing about General Mahmood’s visit shortly before 9/11, Chossudovsky said Pakistan's chief spy Lt. General Mahmood Ahmad "was in the US when the attacks occurred." He arrived in the US on the 4th of September, a full week before the attacks. He had meetings at the State Department "after" the attacks on the WTC. But he also had "a regular visit of consultations" with his US counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11.
That seems pretty tenuous
“What was the nature of these routine 'pre-September 11 consultations'? Were they in any way related to the subsequent 'post-September 11 consultations' pertaining to Pakistan's decision to cooperate with Washington. Was the planning of war being discussed between Pakistani and US officials? On the 9th of September while General Ahmad was in the US, the leader of the Northern Alliance Commander Ahmad Shah Masood was assassinated. The Northern Alliance had informed the Bush Administration that the ISI was allegedly implicated in the assassination.”
However that is more than likely, Masood had been a thorn in the side of the Pakisanis ever since the 80's when the ISI favoured Hekmatyar over him.
“The Bush Administration consciously took the decision in "the post September 11 consultations" with Lt. General Mahmood Ahmad to directly "cooperate" with Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) despite its links to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and its alleged role in the assassination of Commander Masood, which coincidentally occurred two days before the terrorist attacks,” the Canadian Professor wrote, noting that on the Sunday prior to Oct 7 bombing on Afghanistan, Lt. General Mahmood Ahmad was sacked from his position as head of the ISI in what was described as a routine "reshuffling." He also quoted a report published in the Times of India, allegedly revealing the links between Pakistan's Chief spy Lt. General Mahmood Ahmad and the presumed "ring leader" of the WTC attacks Mohamed Atta. The ToI article was based on an official intelligence report of the Delhi government that had been transmitted through official channels to Washington. AFP then reported: "The evidence we [the Government of India] have supplied to the US is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism."

According to the Canadian Professor in assessing the alleged links between the terrorists and the ISI, “it should be understood that Lt. General Ahmad as head of the ISI was a "US approved appointee". As head of the ISI since 1999, he was in liaison with his US counterparts in the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Pentagon. Also bear in mind that Pakistan's ISI remained throughout the entire post Cold War era until the present, the launch-pad for CIA covert operations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Balkans. “The existence of an "ISI-Osama-Taliban axis" was a matter of public record. The links between the ISI and agencies of the US government including the CIA are also a matter of public record. The Bush Administration was fully cognizant of Lt. General Ahmad's role. In other words, rather than waging a campaign against international terrorism, the evidence would suggest that it is indirectly abetting international terrorism, using the Pakistani ISI as a "go-between".

These charges, wild they may seem in the present context, have been circulating in Washington for some time and General Ehsan would have to answer many of the questions raised by his hosts in this context. But what would be of utmost importance and concern to the US is the latest “rehabilitation” of General Mahmood, in the form of a cushy corporate position as head of Fauji Fertilizer, the multi-billion rupees business corporation run by ex-army men.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 05/07/2003 04:11 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Difficult Talks
US: You ISI are terrorists!
ISI: We are not terrorists!
US: You are!
ISI: We aren't!
US: Are!
ISI: Aren't!
US: Jihadi!
ISI: Kaffir!
US: No aid!
ISI: We could take another look!
Posted by: Anonon || 05/07/2003 5:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm..Let's see why the U.S. decided to attack Iraq and not Pakistan:

WMD:
Iraq (Yes, but nukes?) - Pakistan(Yes, confirmed nukes)

Dictator: Yes - Yes

Genocide on own people:
Yes (Halabja)- Yes(BanglaDesh)

Terrorism Sponsor:
Maybe - Taliban,LeT,JM

No. of CIA employees killed:
0 - 3

hmm....
Posted by: Rajit || 05/07/2003 7:14 Comments || Top||

#3  So, Rajit, are you saying we should have waited 'til Iraq had confirmed nuclear weapons? Would that have made it more "fair"?
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 8:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Patience, Rajit. We will get to Pakistan. It's not going anywhere...
Posted by: mjh || 05/07/2003 8:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Rajit,

One more thing. You fail to note that Iraq has a direct stake in financing terrorism against Israel, while I have yet to hear any such claims against Pakistan. Rather, the flow of terrorist support most likely goes from the Middle East (Read: Saudi Arabia) into Pakistan.

The weed of terrorism has to be torn out by the roots...starting w. the Middle East.
Posted by: mjh || 05/07/2003 8:40 Comments || Top||

#6  rajit - are you claiming Perv was in charge in Pakistan during the Bangladesh conflict?

and conflating the Pakistani regime with Saddams totalitarianism as being similar dictatorships is ridiculous.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/07/2003 9:17 Comments || Top||

#7  mjh is right. Iraq is a proven money generator for terrorism. Taking Iraq out of the terrorism game cuts out 1/4 to 1/3 of the terrorist money. Plunking troops smack dab between Syria and Iran sends a strong message to AOE club members. Pakistan is a schitzo jihadi money pit financed by Saudi money, and unfortunately the US, who had to use it to get to Afghanistan. These governments over there are liars, thieves, and supporters of terrorism. It will take time to clean up this s--thole financed by western petrodollars and perpetuated by corrupt indiginous leaders and religious fanatics.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#8  I think that Rajit used the wrong example for Pakistan's genocide. Doesn't the ISI's involvement in Afghanistan from 1989 to 2001 qualify as genocide? Lemme see: ethnic cleansing, check; milions in refugee camps, check; rising mortality rates, check; violence against women, check. And was Perv involved in all that? Check!
Posted by: 11A5S || 05/07/2003 11:16 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Baathists vow a ‘tough and historic’ resistance
A close associate of Saddam Hussein was quoted on Tuesday as saying that the deposed Iraqi president was safe in Iraq preparing to organise resistance to US-led occupation forces.
Ummm... Wasn't the time to do that before the war started? Or did we miss something?
Qassem Salam, secretary-general of Yemen's Arab Socialist Baath Party, said he had received a message from the leadership of Saddam's Baath Arab Socialist Party around mid-April assuring him about the fate of fellow party leaders in Iraq.
"Hi, Qassem! How are you? We're all fine, except for those of who're dead..."
"(The verbal message) asserted that... all the leadership was well and in safe places. The national (pan-Arab) leadership, including Saddam Hussein, were in safe places, and those who had left Iraq also said they were safe," Salam told the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi in an interview, without giving details.
Hmmm... Maybe that's why they lost the war, huh? Instead of fighting agains the infidels, they all headed for safe places...
"The crux of the message was that the resistance to the Americans will be tough and it will be decisive and historic," he added, speaking from Yemen.
"Yeah. We're gonna get right on it..."
Salam, a former lover school mate of Saddam in Egypt who had regularly met the Iraqi leader, said he last saw Saddam at an official Baath party leadership meeting on March 8. He said Saddam had himself led a battle against US forces who seized Baghdad airport but was later betrayed by commanders of his Republican Guards who believed the war was already lost.
Ri-i-i-i-ght!
"The Americans were taken by surprise by the Iraqi tanks and the Fedayeen surrounding them from every corner and not a single American left the airport," he said, adding that it was then that the US military decided to enter Baghdad.
"Herb, we're surrounded on all sides by unexpected Iraqi tanks and heroic fedayeen! We can't withdraw from the airport! What'll we do!"
"I've got it, Marv! Let's go downtown!"
US troops seized Baghdad International Airport on April 4 and later thrust into the capital from there, leading to the swift fall of Saddam's government. Asked why Baghdad had fallen so easily, Salam said, "The top chain in the Republican Guards started to get frustrated and gave the impression to commanders below them that Saddam was over, the battle was over and that the Americans had won and that they should disappear until resistance could be organised."
Prob'ly a pretty accurate assessment. Run away to fight another day seems to have been the preferred course...
"I believe that the resistance has not started yet, and that the battle that Saddam planned for is yet to start... Preparations for this battle are underway and the millions of army personal who withdrew are still there," Salam.
We saw their shoes where they left them...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 03:55 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What do they have, a Time Tunnel?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 16:00 Comments || Top||

#2  If Sammy and the Gorillas get too frisky, they may have to use the ouija board to communicate. Maybe this is whole thing is a diversion while they manouever the semi loads of cash to safe places in France.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 17:30 Comments || Top||

#3  We should pull a corpse (any corpse) out and say it's Saddam. It will quelch a lot of these wanabe war mongers. What they hope to do is incite some idiot named Abu to strap some TNT on and go blow himself up at a checkpoint.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/07/2003 18:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, at least we know now what the nearly 1 billion dollars Sammy withdrew from the bank was for. He's going to open up a new account and use the money to pay wages of the "millions of army personnel'" who are waiting to start resisting! What a swell guy, huh? I just knew we were reading him all wrong.
Posted by: Dripping sarcasm || 05/07/2003 18:49 Comments || Top||


Bio-Weapons lab found
Pentagon: Mobile Bioweapons Lab Found in Iraq
That's all that Fox has on their site.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 01:40 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mike - what's the URL for the fox site?
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 13:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Never mind - got off my lazy hinder-holster and found it. *sheepish grin*
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 14:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Looks like they might have found one.
I fall for those catchy headlines to easy.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Correction,
Too easy.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:14 Comments || Top||

#5  too easily (g!)

(sorry, it's my inner pedant acting up)
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/07/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||

#6  This is the same trailer they found on 4/19. It looks like DOD is confirming that it is a bio lab, though.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 14:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Here's more from the AP, via LGF.
Posted by: growler || 05/07/2003 15:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks a pantload anonymous, I really needed that.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 15:05 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Oil Smugglers Describe Tactics
Edited for brevity.
It looked like nothing more than a working fishing boat, and that's what it was before the crew pulled out the freezer containers and the air compressor, inserting an oil tank in their place. They filled it with 1,000 tons of diesel fuel purchased from Saddam Hussein's state oil enterprise. Then they pulled away from this port at the top of the Persian Gulf and headed for open water. A few miles south, they were confronted by a U.S. warship, on patrol to enforce trade sanctions aimed at depriving Hussein of the wealth fetched by his oil. But all the sailors saw was a big boat pulling nets, followed by hungry seagulls.

Between the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq this year, it proved impossible to completely cut the flow of Iraqi oil and choke off the regime's finances. There were simply too many routes through which Hussein could get oil over borders, too many traders eager to buy it, and too many Iraqis willing to take risks. There were two ways for the merchants to buy oil from Hussein's state companies. Outside of the United Nations-authorized oil-for-food program, they sometimes traded foreign shipments of food such as rice and beans for letters from the Ministry of Oil that authorized them to claim equivalent sums of heavy fuel oil or diesel. But mostly they paid cash, sometimes by wire transfer, and sometimes in sacks. They deposited the funds at the Al Batra Bank in Jordan, in an account under the name of the State Organization for Oil Marketing, or SOMO, according to oil industry executives. Once the funds reached the bank account in Jordan, a SOMO agent there notified the oil ministry in Baghdad, which informed a SOMO branch in Basra. There, in an office now occupied by the newly named leader of South Oil Co., a special agency set up to handle smuggled oil released the needed letters of authorization.

In the first years after the Gulf War, the smugglers favored departing from Abu Flous, a port on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Two pipes connected the terminal there to the prodigious fields of Zubair and a refinery in Basra, bringing in heavy fuel and diesel. They pulled their tankers up to the hoses, presented their letters of authorization and filled out a single sheet of paper marking the total. Then they were free to go.

The tankers were able to cross into Iranian waters and remain within three miles of the shore as they traveled the length of the Persian Gulf. In that fashion, they were able to avoid U.S. vessels. The merchants paid fees in cash at a bank in Dubai, which then transferred the money to Tehran. The fees for passage were dwarfed by the enormous profits. The merchants typically paid Saddam Hussein's oil marketing agency $80 per ton for diesel fuel. They could usually sell it for between $180 and $200 per ton. The route through Iranian waters was closed off in 1998, when Iran began denying entry to the smugglers. The smugglers shifted to a larger terminal in Zubair. It sat directly on the Persian Gulf, but it led straight to where the U.S. Navy was patrolling most intensely. The smugglers began shipping only at night, hiring small fishing boats to scout for unwelcoming vessels, radioing back in code if they encountered any.

The war brought everything to a halt. Today, British soldiers occupy the port, and the pipeline connecting the refinery to the loading terminal is on fire, sabotaged by Saddam Hussein's retreating remnants -- or perhaps struck by a shell. With the dictator gone, the once legitimate sailors-turned-smugglers wonder when they can go legitimate again, resuming shipments out of Iraq in the open, free of interception.
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 01:15 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1000 tons?

That's a lot of diesel. 2,000,000 lbs, to be exact.

What's diesel's specific gravity? It's less than water, I assume, and water is 8lbs/gallon...
Posted by: mojo || 05/07/2003 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder how much WMD left the country this way.
Posted by: Penguin || 05/07/2003 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  .82-.92 from one source I found. Works out, if I count my toes correctly, to 205,000-230,000 gallons. Really big tank!
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 13:55 Comments || Top||

#4  About 6.7 lb/US gallon, IIRC
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Fred--I see you went to the article and posted more of it than I did originally. I'm just trying to save you bandwidth by severely editing my posts.

Have page hits declined with the lessened tempo of the war?
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Well I doubt Sunnie will be back anytime soon.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Page hits are down, thank goodness. 25,000 hits in a day is good for the ego, really hard on the pocketbook. I've also done a few things to cut load. Feel free to post raw meat...
Posted by: Fred || 05/07/2003 18:43 Comments || Top||


Iraqis knew Apache assualt was coming
Short take from a long interview:
An Iraqi spy hiding in An Najaf speed-dialed the Medina Republican Guard division on his cell phone that U.S. Army Apache helicopters had launched an attack March 24. What was supposed to be a surprise assault ended up with heavy damage to the helicopter fleet and the capture of two U.S. pilots who were then held as prisoners of war. "The attack of the 11th Aviation (Regiment) on the Medina Division did not meet the objectives that I had set for that attack," said Lt. Gen. Scott Wallace, V Corps commander. "We found out, subsequent to the attack, based on some intelligence reports, that apparently ... both the location of our attack aviation assembly areas and the fact that we were moving out of those assembly areas in the attack was announced to the enemy's air defense personnel by an Iraqi observer, thought to be a major general, who was located someplace in the town of An Najaf using a cellular telephone."
This part of Saddam's "Blackhawk Down" plan worked.
The Iraqis also apparently cut the power in the area, an apparent signal to air defense gunners using small arms and tracer fires to attack the approaching U.S. helicopters.
Clever, no radio or phone signal that could be intercepted or jammed.
"As our attack aviation approached the attack positions, they came under intense enemy fire," Wallace said. Wallace said the unit changed the way it used the helicopters based on the after-action report and two days later launched a successful "deep" operation north of Karbala. Around 30 Apaches were used in the 3rd Infantry Division's attack through the Karbala Gap to Baghdad. "So I guess, to summarize, I would suggest to you that we learned from our mistakes, we adjusted and adapted based on what we learned, and we still used the Apache helicopter in a significant role during the course of the fight," Wallace said.
The entire interview is pretty good.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 12:59 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What bothers me about the first attack is: aviation attacks on armor were played over and over in Europe. The mass assault was, to my recollection, never designed this way. Why would you move your copters as if they were armor? They're calvary; dart, duck, hide and seek weapons platforms.

I call this as much a misuse of the platform as a surprise by the iraqis.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 13:58 Comments || Top||


Person claiming to be Sammy urges Iraqis to fight against justice
More from link
(AP) - In a new audiotape — the first allegedly made by Saddam Hussein since U.S.-led forces ousted his regime — the deposed Iraqi tyrant murderer monster leader urges his countrymen to fight foreign occupation. The Sydney Morning Herald said it received the 14-minute tape from two men in Baghdad on Monday who said they were trying to get it to Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya, two Arab satellite television channels. There was no way to confirm if the tired-sounding voice on the tape was that of Saddam, although the accent and phrasing were akin to that of the ousted leader.
Tough beans, Saddamn- if that's you. Evil can never triumph totally.
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 11:52 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Salam Pax is Alive and Blogging!!!
Let me tell you one thing first. War sucks big time. Don’t let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom. Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine guns at the end of your street you don’t think about your “imminent liberation” anymore.
That's just a start. There's a huge number of posts that he wrote while the war was on. Thank God and Allah and the deity of your choice he's okay.
Posted by: growler || 05/07/2003 11:01 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  growler - thanks for the Post cover last week! It's a keeper!
Posted by: Raj || 05/07/2003 11:05 Comments || Top||

#2  whoo hoo!
Posted by: Becky || 05/07/2003 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  growler
Thanks for the Post, it was well wait the wait.
Posted by: Jack Bross || 05/07/2003 12:19 Comments || Top||

#4  He does seem to verify that he was one of the social elite in Baghdad with these posts. Perhaps he will be de-Baathisized.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||

#5  I gotta agree with Chuck. Glad to see Salam made it through the war--but then he doesn't seem to have the scars, welts, severed ears, missing fingernails, and broken bones the poor souls who truly suffered under Saddam have. Yes, "War sucks big time," but, for many, living under Saddam sucked even worse.
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 13:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Glad those Posts got there. Sorry for the looooong delay. I procrastinate, but do get the job done.

God, I love The Post. It's the best entertainment you can get for a quarter. And, as Ken Layne reports, so do many others.

Still, I think those wesels made for The Post's best cover of the year.

As for Salam, yeah, maybe he's upper class. So what. He gave, and gives, some real insight into life in Iraq. He's one of the few I can stomach despite his not being gung-ho for all this. And I read somewhere that he may be gay. IF that's true, life couldn't have been all that easy for him there.

Anyways, I'm just glad he's alive.
Posted by: growler || 05/07/2003 15:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, growler, I am also glad he's alive, and I've appreciated reading his posts and learning a little bit about Iraq and Baghdad from an Iraqi point of view.

Yet I know there are many in Iraq that had lives much less comfortable and with fewer amenities than Internet access. This isn't just a rich vs. poor scenario--this is about Kurds and Shi'ites towns being gassed. This is about children's prisons and dissenters having their tongues cut out.

In watching episode 9, "Why We Fight" of the "Band of Brothers" miniseries again earlier this week, I am reminded of how complicit many Germans were, Nazi or not, in the Holocaust.

I wonder what kind of a background Salam has--has he turned anybody in for making a snide comment about Saddam? Did his parents have some party connections to account for their lifestyle? Did he or anyone close to him take part in the Kuwait invasion or the suppression of the rebels following it? The Iran/Iraq war?

If Saddam were still in power, what would he be doing now to ensure his lifestyle remained secure? Would he walk the straight-and-narrow? Would he sacrifice anyone for his own self-preservation? Would he slander anyone merely because that person was a rival in some way?

I don't have any problems with anyone who's upper class in a fair and open society, but I'm suspicious of those who are in an oppressive and intolerant society. People don't usually reach that tier in those societies without conforming and complying with the regime, and I'm curious to what extent Salam and family did.
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 18:39 Comments || Top||

#8  There are disturbing discrepancies in the entries which are posted at least for "26/4." The entry posted at The UK Guardian and at The Command Post includes an anecdote about a reporter named Burns. The entries posted on his own blog do not include this. I noticed this in a brief and cursory scan of the two differing versions. There may be more discrepancies. It is not possible to ascertain how much of the text was actually written by Salam Pax and how much may have been added or altered or changed by his "cousin" or someone else. Here is the URL for The Command Post link so you can see for yourself.

Salam Pax Returns

This makes it impossible to attribute authenticity to the material or accept its credibility.
Posted by: button || 05/08/2003 6:48 Comments || Top||


Two of Hearts Bagged
US-led forces in Iraq say they have detained a senior member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Ghazi Hamud al-Adib was the Baath party chairman and militia commander for the Wasit governorate, which includes the city of Kut. He is number 32 on US Central Command's list of the top 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's former regime. He is depicted as the two of hearts. It is not clear whether he surrendered or was captured by coalition forces in Iraq. So far 19 out of the 55 most wanted have been captured by US-led forces or have surrendered, while one, former presidential adviser Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", is thought to be dead.
Thought dead? Didn't they find enough to ID?
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 08:04 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  so far we've got a Straight, a flush, or a full house.

Im waiting for 4 of a kind or a straight flush.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/07/2003 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  So who've we got so far and what are their ranks and suits?
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 12:03 Comments || Top||


Iraqi weapons scientists too fearful to surrender, UN man claims
EFL.
Senior Iraqi weapons scientists who are in hiding from US troops have contacted former UN inspectors to discuss giving themselves up. But they fear they will be jailed if they do not tell their interrogators what they want to hear.
Just the stuff that can be verified will do.
One of the ex-inspectors contacted, David Albright, a Washington-based hired gun expert on nuclear proliferation, said the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime had not brought an end to the climate of fear hanging over Iraqi scientists. "A sizeable group from the nuclear programme want to cooperate with the US, but they don't want to be detained if they turn themselves in," Mr Albright told the Guardian. "They worry that if they go in, the US investigation is going to focus on one thing: 'If you tell us where the weapons are we'll treat you kindly.' But they may genuinely know nothing about it."
"We know nothing!"
"Tell, them, Hogan!"
Mr Albright said that all the Iraqis he had talked to denied knowledge of recent weapons programmes, but he added that that was hardly surprising as they were talking over open telephone lines, and might want to use what knowledge they had as a bargaining chip for better treatment.
Ah, so they might know something!
Mr Albright, who runs the left-leaning shill organization Institute for Science and International Security, said that after the fall of the regime, he had contacted some of the former Iraqi scientists he had met during earlier UN inspections. Some, including a senior Iraqi nuclear scientist, cluelessly had sought him out. The nuclear scientist had been found by journalists but said he would only to talk to them if they could put him in touch with Mr Albright. He said he knew of other former inspectors who had also been contacted by fearful Iraqis. The scientists, having lived for so long in fear of reprisals if they spoke about Iraqi weapons programmes, are also unconvinced that the threat from the ousted regime has passed. "We're worried that if they are seen as cooperating they could be targeted by Saddam loyalists as collaborators," Mr Albright said. "The regime was always ready to punish families. We're talking about fears here, but given the security problems in Baghdad they're not unfounded." Another former UN inspector, Stephen Black, said: "No one has said to these people that there are not going to be trials for people who had been secretly involved in programmes to make weapons of mass destruction. So why should they cooperate?"
I think you answered your own question just one sentence back, Skippy.
"This is a little bargaining game. They have something of use to us. They are looking for ways to maintain their nice lifestyle that they had before," Mr Black said.
It's the "Werner van Braun" solution.
He added he had not personally been approached by any Iraqi scientists and didn't want his telephone tapped. US-led forces in Iraq have so far failed to find any conclusive proof that Saddam had developed banned weapons in recent years. Former leaders from the regime already in custody have also denied such weapons programmes existed. The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the hunt would turn its focus to lower-level scientists and officials who might be persuaded to talk openly.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/07/2003 12:57 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Smithers!"

"Yes sir?"

"Do we need any more Iraqi Nuclear scientists?"

"No sir. We've got plenty of our own."

"I see... Well, have this batch all shot, then Smithers."

"Yes SIR!..."
Posted by: mojo || 05/07/2003 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  But they fear they will be jailed if they do not tell their interrogators what they want to hear.

Typical Guardian. The lead paragraph makes it sound like the mean ol' US is going jail them if they don't agree to make up lies.

In light of what Sadaam would have done, compared to the absolute worst that we might do, you'd think that the guys who write this blather might start to feel a little silly. But apparently not.
Posted by: Becky || 05/07/2003 12:13 Comments || Top||


Poland puts Iraq carve-up in doubt
Plans to deploy a multinational stabilisation force in Iraq were thrown in doubt yesterday when Poland, one of the expected key troop contributors, insisted that the force required a UN mandate.
Oh good grief. Someone check de Villepin's phone calls and itinerary for the past week.
The demand throws a shadow over a meeting in London tomorrow aimed at securing pledges of troop deployments for the British zone of control. The Polish foreign minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, presented his position after talks in Washington with the US secretary of state, Colin Powell. "We believe that we need that kind of resolution. I understand that in days ahead there will be some initiatives opening the way to have such a resolution," he said. The US is preparing to present a comprehensive UN resolution to the UN security council covering the division of responsibilities and powers in postwar Iraq, but it is likely to meet stiff resistance from France, Russia and China.
Ya don't say. The Cubs might win the Series before the resolution passes.
A drawn-out debate over the resolution could delay the deployment of at least some of the stabilisation force. Poland was expected to be a key contributor, sending about 1,500 troops and commanding one of up to four zones of control. Some diplomatic sources suggested they would be sent to the port of Umm Qasr. British forces would be based in Basra, commanding a multinational brigade including Spanish troops, and a mix of forces from other European and Latin American states. Tomorrow's meeting will focus on shaping that brigade. American troops would control Baghdad, and Poland would be responsible for central Iraq. Mr Cimoszewicz has proposed a meeting on May 22 in Warsaw to finalise pledges of troop commitments. A fourth zone could be carved out in the north or west, but it is unclear which country would run it.
Kurdistan? They seem pretty competent.
The Spanish defence minister, Federico Trillo, said 1,500 of his country's troops would operate in the British area that he defined as "zone 4 south". Mr Cimoszewicz said it was intended "to have all the countries ready to engage" in Iraq by the end of this month. After meeting Mr Powell, he urged Germany and other European states to contribute to Iraq's stabilisation and reconstruction. "Success or failure will have broad international consequences," he said.
Someone was gotten to.
Spanish newspapers quoted defence ministry officials yesterday saying that Honduras and Nicaragua had offered troops for the "Spanish brigade" only if Spain paid for them. Chile and Argentina had said they would take part in a UN force only, the reports said.
They can all stay home.
The odd assortment of nations being consulted reflects the difficulties Washington has faced trying to gain support for its occupation of postwar Iraq. Few countries with experience in the Middle East are on board, and no Islamic countries have offered troops. Most of the willing are relatively impoverished states eager to enhance their relationship with the US but unable to pay their way.
If we have to ante up, we should just do it with our own troops and be done with it.
The Polish defence minister, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, said he had received an assurance from his American counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld, that the US would help raise money from international donors to cover the cost of about 1,500 Polish troops and a headquarters staff. Mr Szmajdzinski estimated the cost at $50m for six months. Poland's deputy defence minister, Janusz Zemke, said that the Polish troops could be initially stationed in Iraq for a year and then rotated every six months. He said they would play an important role protecting energy facilities, telecommunication hubs and transport arteries. Troops from a chemical defence regiment have already been mobilised and are expected to leave for Iraq soon. Mr Zemke said that up to 11 European countries had expressed an interest in taking part. "We are also getting signs that certain Asian countries, for example India, Pakistan and the Philippines, would be prepared to send troops," Mr Zemke said.
Oooooo, send in the Hindoos. That'll restore calm not just in Iraq but also in Pakland. And aren't the Filipino troops needed in their own country right about now? I recall reading something about that yesterday in Rantburg.
Most of the potential contributors are anxious to ensure their soldiers avoid conflict. Spain has stated that it does not want to have to intervene in demonstrations. "We want somewhere that is as calm as possible," said a government official quoted by El Mundo newspaper yesterday.
How 'bout the Basque region?
A senior US official said the US sector would be patrolled by 20,000 troops remaining separate from the 135,000 combat troops already in Iraq. Bulgaria's defence minister, Nikolai Svinarov, said his country would send 450 soldiers to Iraq. However, Bulgaria, like Poland, wants the US to help find funds to finance its contribution.
This is a sucker's game. Tell 'em all to stay home and 'polish their bayonets'. We can handle this ourselves if we have to, and that will send another message.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/07/2003 12:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We put $300m into Puerto Rico's economy (but not for long), how much are our bases going to put into theirs? They can't even come up w/a measly $50 mil? Geez, the ham, perogi & kielbasa (sp) concession alone should be worth about a few mil.
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/07/2003 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  No bases if they're this easily puppeted by the frogs. I think it's time for some Rumsfeld straight talk.
Posted by: someone || 05/07/2003 1:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Might this be because they will be soon needed elsewhere? "the US sector would be patrolled by 20,000 troops remaining separate from the 135,000 combat troops already in Iraq"
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 05/07/2003 3:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah yes the Euro rears its ugly head... I knew this was too good to be true.
I hope my fellow countrymen remember that the EU won't solve their problems. Unless of course you happen to own property on "temporarily occupied German land".
Posted by: RW || 05/07/2003 3:33 Comments || Top||

#5  For those of you - not me - who can't read www.proche-orient.com in French, will be pleased to learn that they now post in English as well.
You need to bookmark that site, if you want to learn something about the Islamofascization of France, that the juvies at www.fuckfrance.com can't understand.
Posted by: Anonon || 05/07/2003 5:31 Comments || Top||

#6  why we want help

1. To put an international face on it - so when bad stuff happens, its not "the American occupiers"

2. Overstretch - we've only got so many divisions. As KF points out, we want 135,000 combat troops in Iraq to put defend from the neighnors, pressure the neighbors, deal with regime remnants, etc. That plus commitments in Afghanistan, the Pacific, and elsewhere, and need for strategic reserve, doesnt leave a lot for peacekeeping.
3. "We dont do peacekeeping" - we want to keep our troops trained and sharp for combat - we dont particularly want the US military to dilute its warrior elan by getting too heavily into the peacekeeping business.


So yeah, its worth it to have others aboard.
And i wouldnt assume its going as badly as the article implies. It is afterall, from Al-Guardian.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/07/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Evidently, Kimmie's new book is all the rage in new Europe.
Posted by: Scott || 05/07/2003 9:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Good post. Of course the French are putting huge pressure on the Poles. You can be sure that what Chirac said in public re shut up/badly raised is still being said between the Quai d'Orsay and Warsaw.

Any idea how Polish public opinion is on their troops on the ground in Iraq?
Posted by: michael || 05/07/2003 11:10 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Amrozi trial starts Monday
The first suspect to face trial over the Bali blasts which killed 202 people is a village mechanic who has been dubbed the "laughing bomber" for his apparent indifference to the slaughter, said a press report on Wednesday. Amrozi, whose trial to start next Monday, has been described by Indonesian police as a mischievous youth who fell under the influence of hardline preachers.
"Mischievous youths" sneak up while you're not looking and tie your shoestrings together. Sometimes they overturn outdoor toilets on Halloween. If they don't like you, they toss bags of flaming dog poop onto your porch and ring the doorbell. They don't bomb tourist joints and kill a couple hundred people.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 04:11 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Religion of Peace fails to stop Incest, Pedophilia
A MALAYSIAN contractor with 50 children from four wives has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for raping his 11-year-old daughter last year who will not be married now by any Allah-loving Muslim man as she is not a virgin, it would bring shame on the family, reports said.
Oh, but Al Muhajiroun told me that Islam was the solution to western perversion and that western homosexuals and promiscuity and the catholic church were all responsible for pedophilia and rape.
Tengku Ismail Tengku Ibrahim, 56, was found guilty of the offence by a court in the north-eastern state of Kelantan but was spared an additional punishment of caning as he was above 50, the New Straits Times said. "This thing should not have happened because (you) look like a Islamo-pervert religious and pious man. On top of that, you already have four wives to abuse, beat, enslave satisfy your desires," Judge Azman Abdullah said before passing sentence. Muslim men in Malaysia are allowed to take four female slaves, domestic servants, Allah's little incubators wives. Seven witnesses, including the victim now 12, her elder brother and mother who is Tengku Ismail's fourth wife, testified against him.
Hmmm you mean he doesn't get death by stoning?
Posted by: Anon1 || 05/07/2003 01:26 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And how many other instances like this occur but don't get any legal traction because a woman's testimony is not as valuable as a man's? If the woman makes an accusation, and the man denies it, no investigation is considered necessary. This little girl fortunately had other witnesses willing to step up.
Posted by: Kathy || 05/07/2003 6:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Gee, I guess he'll have to burn the poor girl alive now so she doesn't shame the family.
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/07/2003 6:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Why is a woman's testimony considered to be worth less than nothing in Islam?
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  It doesn't count less than nothing. It's technically 1/2 that of a man. (That is, as long as we're talking about a MUSLIM woman. If we're talking about a Christian or Jew or what have you, that's a different story.) See this site for an interesting discussion of the justification for this from a Muslim standpoint: http://www.masmn.org/Books/Yusuf_Al_Qaradawi/The_Status_Of_Women_In_Islam/004.htm#Legal%20testimony.

See this Time.com article for more specific real world examples: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,185647,00.html.
Posted by: Kathy || 05/07/2003 15:03 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Video shows inside look at al Qaeda cell, authorities say
Video shows inside look at al Qaeda cell, authorities say
A videotape obtained by CNN shows 9/11 hijackers and suspected plotters attending a wedding reception in Hamburg, Germany, two years before the terrorist attacks on the United States.

The tape offers a rare, inside look at behavior among members of an al Qaeda terrorist cell in Hamburg thought to be behind the 2001 attacks, German authorities said.

The video -- received by CNN on Tuesday -- shows a reception at the October 1999 wedding of Said Bahaji, who is wanted by German authorities for suspected involvement in the attacks. He is believed to have fled to Pakistan shortly before they occurred, and is still at large.

At one point on the 30-minute tape, a wedding guest -- Ramzi Binalshibh -- speaks out against Israel and, in a possible reference to the attacks, says, "We are still in Arabic class and, at the end of the class, there will be a test and the test is the meal, God willing. There will be those who pass and those who fail."

Binalshibh is accused of helping to coordinate the attacks as a leader of the cell. He was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, on September 11, 2002. Binalshibh was named as a member of the cell by Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan convicted in February of being an accessory to the attacks.

The video shows that Bahaji had a personal link with members of the cell, German authorities said.

Two September 11 hijackers -- Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah -- are also seen at the reception, with the others. Al-Shehhi hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center. Jarrah was one of the hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, which slammed into a field in Pennsylvania.
In the video, al-Shehhi chants with other wedding guests. He is wearing a full beard, unlike his clean-shaven appearance when he arrived in the United States for the hijackings. U.S. authorities believe he shaved before entering the country to more easily blend in with crowds.

Also on the reception tape is Mamoun Darkanzanli, who has been under investigation by German police for allegedly funneling money to al Qaeda. He denies any involvement in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Mohamed Atta -- believed by the FBI to be the leader of the September 11 attacks -- could not be seen in the video, but investigators believe he was present at the wedding. Atta is said to be pictured in a still photograph from the event.
Germany's chief federal prosecutor has said that Bahaji and Atta once shared a Hamburg apartment, and that Bahaji studied electronics at the same Hamburg technical college as both Atta and al-Shehhi.

The video was obtained by a law firm working on behalf of attack victims and was given to the firm by German authorities. The tape will be valuable to lawyers for victims' families in their suit against alleged terrorists, including Bahaji, if he is captured, the attorneys said.

Posted by: Omer Ishmail || 05/07/2003 11:51 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iran
Iran ’violating nuclear treaty’
WASHINGTON - Iran has done little to cooperate with UN inspectors on its nuclear programme, according to the US.

The comment by a senior American official on Tuesday reinforces Washington's view that Teheran is violating a key treaty and should face more international pressure.

'Nothing that we have seen suggests the Iranians are being transparent about their nuclear activities in the true meaning of transparent,' said the official, who declined to be named.

'It's deny and deceit, cheat and retreat. Nothing that we see about the programme convinces us that they are in compliance with the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.'

Washington has intelligence about Iran's programme and has made some of it available to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran defended its nuclear programme at a closed IAEA briefing in Vienna on Tuesday, insisting that it was peaceful.

Iran looms as a major issue when the agency, the United Nations bureau for overseeing compliance with non-proliferation commitments, holds a board meeting next month.

If director-general Mohammed ElBaradei reports to the board of governors that Iran is not complying with the treaty, the board's response could lead to another nuclear stand-off.

The United States is already locked in a confrontation with North Korea over nuclear issues.

The senior official said that if the board found non-compliance by Iran, the matter should be reported to the UN Security Council. He did not spell out what steps Washington might then endorse.

The Bush administration is grappling with the issue now that the Iraq war is winding down and disturbing new details have been revealed about Teheran's nuclear activities.

Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation John Wolf said last week that Iran provided 'perhaps the most fundamental' challenge ever to the bedrock treaty, which was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

He accused Iran of conducting 'an alarming, clandestine programme to acquire sensitive nuclear capabilities that we believe make sense only as part of a nuclear weapons programme'.

A February visit by Mr ElBaradei confirmed Iran had the ability to build gas centrifuges, a key component in nuclear weapons production.

The US has branded Iran a major sponsor of terrorism,

Senior Iranian officials have said they are committed to developing the full range of nuclear fuel cycle facilities.

The IAEA found an accelerated programme which forced US officials to shorten their estimates as to when Iran might acquire weapons capability.

Teheran is said to be on track to produce enough enriched uranium for many nuclear bombs by 2005.

Since February, Mr ElBaradei has sought more information and, according to the BBC, on Tuesday praised Iran for cooperating with the IAEA.

US Undersecretary of State John Bolton left Moscow on Tuesday apparently without winning Russia over to the US view.

And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was visiting Teheran, said there was progress on the nuclear issue. \-- Reuters
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 09:05 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was visiting Teheran, said there was progress on the nuclear issue.

If he says that, then they'll probably be launching the missles towards here tomorrow.

Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:53 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Abbas to try persuasion, not force, with militants
The new Palestinian government will first try to subdue militant groups by persuasion rather than force, a senior Palestinian official told visiting US envoy William Burns Monday.
How do you persuade somebody who's rolling his eyes, jumping up and down, and screaming, while firing a Kalashnikov at random targets?
The meeting, which follows talks between Burns and Israeli leaders, including Premier Ariel Sharon, comes as peace hopes slowly rise despite a renewed flare-up of violence which Israel played as an attack on the Palestinian premier’s authority. Burns’s efforts coincided with reports that Israel had rejected a peace overture from Syria before the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March. Syria wants Israel to return the Golan Heights seized in the 1967 war.
"Hey, can we have those back?"
"No, why?"
Israel’s Maariv daily said a Syrian proposal to resume peace talks was made in secret contacts in Jordan between Israeli businessmen and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother, Maher. A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined comment on the report, but a source in Sharon’s office said “it was decided that treatment of the matter would be delayed until Syria’s true local and international situation becomes clear in the fallout of the Iraqi war.”
"Yo, Bashar! Your eyes open yet?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 07:38 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reasoning with them has worked so well in the past.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 22:19 Comments || Top||


Korea
Koizumi, Bush to warn N. Korea over nuclear program
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush are likely to warn North Korea over its alleged reprocessing of spent fuel rods that could be used to make nuclear weapons, when they meet in the United States later this month, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. Another senior Foreign Ministry official said the two leaders may issue a joint statement demanding that North Korea immediately scrap its nuclear weapons program. Koizumi and Bush, who will meet May 22 and 23 at the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington, are expected to express their opposition to North Korea's reprocessing the spent fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium, the senior Foreign Ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. Bush is also scheduled meet with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in Washington later this month to promote policy coordination to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue. Koizumi was quoted as saying in a meeting Wednesday evening with Takenori Kanzaki, leader of the junior coalition partner New Komeito, that he wants to closely cooperate with the U.S. and South Korea over North Korean issues. Kanzaki visited the prime minister's office after returning from a trip to Seoul where he met with the South Korean president.

Japan is currently seeking a peaceful solution to the issue through dialogue, but discord in the government appears to be growing as there are increasing voices favoring a hard-line stance, including imposing economic sanctions against Pyongyang. The official, who appears to favor a peaceful solution, said no country is currently calling for economic sanctions under the United Nations. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Japan's policy toward North Korea remains intact, saying it is seeking to comprehensively solve security issues concerning North Korea, including the abduction of Japanese nationals by the North. Japan wants a comprehensive solution through dialogue, he told a press conference.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 07:02 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is the raw meat that KCNA lives for! Stay tuned.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:34 Comments || Top||


Central Asia
US warns of possible terror strikes in Kyrgyzstan
The US State Department warned today that extreme Islamic groups may be planning terrorist attacks against US citzens or interests in Kyrgyzstan. In a public announcement, the department alerted Americans that extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which it described as "a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida" could be planning attacks. "US citizens are urged to consider their safety and security before travelling to the Kyrgyz Republic," it said.
Keep that in mind if you're thinking of going to Kyrgyzstan or to any other country lacking vowels in its name...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 04:04 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who the hell is going to Kygrystan Krgystzstan Krygrzatan this place?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder how the sale of off-beat destination Lonely Planet books is doing since 9-11?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 21:31 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Sheikh Yassin: Hamas won’t allow Civil war
Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said Wednesday the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement would not allow civil war to take place among Palestinians under any circumstances.
"And if anybody tries it, we're gonna fight them in the streets! We'll fight 'em in the countryside! We'll fight 'em, ummm... Yeah. Guess that would be civil war, wouldn't it?"
Yassin told reporters in Gaza that he was well aware that Israel and the United States were pushing Palestinians “to this direction.”
However, the veteran Palestinian Islamic leader said Palestinians, particularly the Islamists, wouldn’t fulfill the “Zionists’ dreams.”
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it. Nope. We'd sooner kill each other..."
“As we thwarted their nefarious designs in the past, we will do likewise this time. Civil war is a red line in our society. It transcends political and ideological divides.” Yasin said though that Hamas would continue the armed struggle against Israel’s colonialist occupation of the Palestinian homeland. He added that “our guns will be trained toward the occupier of our country; we shall not train our guns towards our brothers under any circumstances.”
"'Less they provoke us, of course. And you know how easily we're provoked..."
Yassin said Hamas would keep up the armed struggle™ as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestine remained.
"Yep. That 'n' disco is our life..."
He labeled calls by the reformist Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas for disarming Palestinian resistance groups “unreasonable and suspicious.”
"Whoever heard of such a thing? Wossa motta with having large numbers of armed fanatics running around and refusing the authority of the gummint?"
“Don’t we have the right to defend ourselves against an evil power of occupation? Should we let them kill us freely and at no price? It is lamentable that instead of pressing the occupying power to leave our streets and neighborhoods, we are being asked to disarm. That is unbelievable.”
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 05/07/2003 03:31 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should we let them kill us freely and at no price?

Sounds to me like they're doing a good enough job all by themselves.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  All dressed up in hate and nowhere to go = civil war. An IDF blockade of the strip and west bank will cause the Paleos to go after each other - the alternative would be to grow a happy and productive society and we know Arafat won't allow that on his watch
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 16:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Remember, too, that to the Paleostines, ALL the territory between the Jordan and the Mediterranean is THEIRS. Israel doesn't exist - not in their thoughts, not in their textbooks, and not in their future. The only end of this futile "peace process" is kill Paleos or be killed.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/07/2003 17:52 Comments || Top||

#4  "Civil war is a red line in our society"

And since when have the paleostines paid any attention to "lines", be they red, or green, or....
Posted by: Dripping sarcasm || 05/07/2003 18:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Judge awards 9/11 families $104 million on Iraqi link
Edited for brevity.
A federal judge Wednesday awarded nearly $104 million in damages to the families of two victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, finding the plaintiffs had provided some evidence that Iraq provided support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. Judge Harold Baer outlined the damages against bin Laden, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi government in a written decision in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Baer said he had concluded that lawyers for the two victims "have shown, albeit barely ... that Iraq provided material support to bin Laden and al-Qaida."
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 03:02 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Good enough for me. Here's your money. Have a nice weekend."
I'm all for these folks getting whatever they can from those bastards, but I really hope Judgey Wudgey doesn't get the slave reparations trial.



Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:46 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran Reformists: Open up or face same fate as Saddam
EFL
Reformist Iranian MPs made a bold appeal Wednesday to the Islamic republic's powerful and entrenched conservative camp to give way to reforms and normalise relations with the outside world — or else risk the same fate as Saddam Hussein. An open letter, signed by 153 deputies in the 290-seat Majlis and read out in the chamber, warned that Iran was in "a critical situation" and the establishment risked losing the support of people who had overwhelmingly voted for reform. And in calling for normalised foreign relations, the letter did not exclude ties with the United States — touching on a taboo topic that is steadily becoming the subject of mounting internal debate. "The majority of Iranians are waiting for reforms, but have reached the conclusion that their votes are meaningless," the MPs wrote, citing the low turnout in February's municipal elections that saw backers of embattled moderate President Mohammad Khatami suffer an unprecedented defeat.

"Following the installation of American forces in Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq, the threat has arrived at our borders," the letter stated, alluding to Iran's place in US President George W. Bush's "axis of evil". Calling on Iran's clerical establishment to "attract confidence at home and abroad", the MPs also acknowledged that Iran remained isolated on the international stage. In an apparent reference to relations with the US — severed after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the subsequent embassy hostage crisis — the MPs called for a "more active diplomacy on the international scene, the objective of which is to normalise relations with other countries... Once again we insist on the fact that we bring reforms to reduce the gap between the people and the establishment." For a country to "face foreign threats, the people have to support the establishment ..."

"Those who are against reforms should not expect us to remain silent under the pretext that our country is threatened," the MPs wrote, repeating the determination of the reformist-held parliament not to give in to the stiffling of its efforts to open up Iran. Since being first elected president in 1997, Khatami has seen his brand of "Islamic glasnost" consistently blocked by conservative-run institutions, while legislation from parliament - held by reformists since 1999 -- is regularly shot down by unelected oversight bodies, also conservative run. The reform movement has also seen scores of its members targeted by the judiciary - another bastion of the religious right. In turn, conservatives allege that while the reform movement may be popular among the burgeoning youth population, it is undermining the values of the Islamic republic while failing to address core economic woes.

While the letter from the MPs took a cautious step in the foreign affairs debate, the reformist party Hambasteghi (Solidarity) issued a separate statement calling for four-way and direct talks between Iran, the US, the United Nations and Iraqi representatives over Iraq's political future. "There was a time," the party said, "when the United States was a country on the other side of the ocean. Unfortunately, now they are our neighbours on all sides.
They noticed.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 01:43 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How about 3-way talks? Leave out the UN and one will save a bundle in time and money. And you would not have to worry about getting your pocket picked and your lunch lifted.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't think Iran has any say in Iraq's poitical future. If I were Hambasteghi I would be asking for direct talks with the US over their own political future...as in:
"how soon can you withdraw 4ID from Tehran and let us establish a provisional government?"
Posted by: Watcher || 05/07/2003 21:10 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Holloman Air Force Base beats own rail vehicle speed record
A bit of railnews that I think is of interest to the Rantburg audience. Edited for brevity.
Holloman Air Force Base's test track in New Mexico bested its own 21-year-old world land-speed record for a rail vehicle early Wednesday. The test, which simulates a warhead, launched a 192-pound payload to evaluate a new system on the test track. An upgrade began in 1997 converted the monorail sled, which held the previous speed records, to a double, narrow-gauge track with the rails 26 inches apart.

Preliminary numbers calculated a speed of Mach 8.6, equal to about 6,400 mph or 9,410 feet per second, said Lt. Col. James Jolliffe, 846th Test Squadron commander. The previous record was Mach 8, or 6,122 mph, set on Oct05, 1982.
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 01:39 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doh! I forgot the question mark.
GGGODDDDDDDAMMMNNNITT!
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Cool! I was stationed there 7 years ago and got to watch a few sled runs. Blink and you miss them going by.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Per How Stuff Works, a blink is about a decisecond or 0.1 seconds in duration, so that sled could be 941 ft. away by the time you open your eyes... I believe you, Steve!
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I like to see the Jamaican Bobsled Team take that sled for a ride.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Since I can't spell, I think I'll kepp my stupid comments to myself.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#6  kepp, Doesn't that figure.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Mike, buddy, pal... you gotta stop drinking and typing! Help us to help you!
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Having a ruff day, Mike?
Posted by: Raj || 05/07/2003 15:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Don't make us sic Sunnie on your ass, Mike.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 15:22 Comments || Top||

#10  “Sunnie don’t go away
I’m here all alone
You’re daddy’s a sailor
He never comes home
Nights are so long
Silence is strong
I’m feeling so tired
Not all that strong..”
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 15:25 Comments || Top||

#11  I believe that's "D'oh," not "Doh," Mike.

Helping others to help themselves is just one of our many goals here at Rantburg.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1387335.stm
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/07/2003 15:47 Comments || Top||

#12  I give up.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||

#13  A friend of mine (next door neighbor in base housing at Holloman) volunteered to ride the sled during some of the tests in the late 1960's. The military ended up medically retiring him because of the problems he developed from the stress. There aren't many people that can say they've travelled at Mach 6 ON THE GROUND!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/07/2003 17:19 Comments || Top||

#14  And in a related development, San Jose's light rail system set a new speed record of 15 MPH, slowest among comparable systems nationwide.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/07/2003 17:31 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Dispute between Arafat, Abu Mazen over Dahlan powers resumed
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) gave a key aide broader powers to curb anti-Israel violence on Wednesday, loosening Yasser Arafat's security grip in line with demands by international peace mediators. An internal memorandum obtained by Reuters said Abbas authorized cabinet minister Mohammed Dahlan to restructure the Palestinian Authority's interior ministry.
I been restructured before, it ain't a lot of fun.
The decision makes Dahlan de facto interior minister with greater control over Palestinian security services intended to rein in armed groups under a U.S.-led "road map" to Middle East peace, Palestinian officials said.
"Intended" being the key phrase.
On Tuesday night, Abbas proposed giving Dahlan the interior ministry outright, but Arafat rejected the idea. Reports said Abbas' proposal, made at a Fatah Central Committee meeting, led to a harsh argument between Abu Mazen and Arafat, who also attended the meeting. Abbas has held the portfolio since he took office on April 30, while Dahlan had a lesser job as minister responsible for internal security. Dahlan now gets control of the ministry without the official title. "Dahlan is now carrying out the missions of a minister of the interior. He is in complete control over security agencies," a Palestinian official said.
Insofar as any control of anything in Paleostine is ever complete, anyway...
For weeks, Arafat had resisted a senior role for Dahlan, a former security chief from Gaza sacked by the Palestinian president last year after speaking out against Palestinian Authority corruption and its handling of the uprising.
This could get real interesting if Dahlan takes his job seriously. Yasser is seeing his power slipping away, I don't see him taking this lying down. Shall we start a dead pool?
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 01:24 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've got $20 sez Mo's house gets shot up or a bomb tossed at it within a month
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 16:59 Comments || Top||

#2  No takers here, Mo is a deadman walking but doesn't know it. Unless he takes out Arafat, Hamas, and Hezbilah first. But that would be too much to ask of him.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/07/2003 18:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon
Damascus: No secret contacts with Israel
Syria denied claims by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he had received indirect messages from Damascus over the possibility of resuming peace talks. It also rejected a report in the Hebrew Maariv daily that, a few weeks before the war on Iraq, a former Israeli foreign ministry official met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother, Maher, in Amman. "Syria categorically denies all the allegations...published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv as well as all the statements by Israeli officials about secret meetings and messages to Sharon on resuming the peace process," foreign ministry spokeswoman Bussaina Shaaban said.
"Lies, all lies! We ain't talking to those Jews!"
Damascus was "the main player that brought about the launch of the (1991) peace process in Madrid, but has always refused to negotiate secretly at any level. Making peace is an honorable thing that does not require secret channels," Shaaban told reporters.
Now, you don't suppose that somebody made up this story in order to get the Syrian government in trouble? Wasn't me, I swear. Fred?
I confess. It was me...
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 01:17 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


"Thanks for the Memories" -- Bob Hope turns 100
by Mark Steyn
Just a sample -- go read the whole thing.
If you only remember one thing about him, it’s this: Bob Hope has made more people laugh than anyone in human history. He’s the only comedian to have been, over the years, the Number One star in radio, in film, and then television, at a time when each of those media was at its highpoint. The Road pictures with Bing Crosby were the highest-grossing series in movie history till James Bond came along, his six decades with NBC hold the record for the longest contract in showbusiness, and his TV specials for the network remain among the most-watched programmes of all time. Plus he’s logged some ten million miles, playing up to 200 live performances a year until into his nineties.
. . .
Much of what we now take for granted as the modern comedy monologue – the delivery, the structure, the subjects – comes from the template developed by Hope. Larry Gelbart, the creator of "M*A*S*H", who wrote for the comedian in the early Fifties, remembers being on tour with him in England and standing in the wings in Blackpool with a local girl he’d picked up. Hope told a joke about motels and the girl fell about. “Do you have motels around here?” Gelbart asked. “No,” she said. “Do you know what a motel is?” he asked. “No,” she said. “So why are you laughing?” “He’s just so funny.” She has a point: by that stage, audiences were so attuned to the self-confident rhythm of his act that they laughed at the right spots without knowing quite what the joke was.
. . .
Steyn eschews his usual smartassery to deliver a moving and sensitive tribute to a great entertainer--one who spent a good part of his career bringing joy and laughter to our armed forces overseas.

Thanks for the memory
Of candlelight and wine, castles on the Rhine
The Parthenon and moments on the Hudson River Line
How lovely it was!

Thanks for the memory
Of rainy afternoons, swingy Harlem tunes
And motor trips and burning lips and burning toast and prunes
How lovely it was!


Happy Birthday, Bob.
Posted by: Mike || 05/07/2003 11:33 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great article...but why is it posted to Rantburg?
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/07/2003 11:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Whatever Fred sez,goes.If it's alright with him,I ain't complainin',you know what I mean.
Posted by: El Id || 05/07/2003 12:21 Comments || Top||

#3  For Anonymous: This is probably the first time that Bob Hope won't be going to a war theater to entertain the troops since WWII; that's a LONG time! He made life a little more bearable for a lot of people in a lot of awful places.

Posted by: MommaBear || 05/07/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Caught about a half-hour of the Bob Home show at Tan Son Nhut in 1970, before having to go to work. He is a class act, and always entertains. He seems to know instinctively what the audience wants, and supplies it. Happy Birthday, Bob. Hope I can say that for many more years.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/07/2003 17:12 Comments || Top||

#5  My dad saw him at a place called Pavuvu with the First Marine Div. in 1944. Fell off a truck and broke his leg while trying to get a better view of the show. Which means he missed Pelielu. Which is probably why him (and me) are still alive. Thanks, Bob.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 21:27 Comments || Top||

#6  This is actually a very good column. People interested in Hope - as well as popular culture, movies, comedy, patriotism - will find this column interesting. Steyn delves into American popular culture of eight decades - the scope of Hope's career - to fashion an interesting thumbnail sketch of a remarkable American artist.
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/08/2003 2:49 Comments || Top||


Korea
Spokesman for DPRK Foreign Ministry on impounding of cargo ship "Pongsu"
Only dopes use dope...and get caught with about 50 million dollars worth of it on one of their ships.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea today gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the disturbing moves to use its cargo ship "Pongsu" impounded in Australia for a smear campaign against it: The United States and Australia are now engrossed in the false propaganda that the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK were involved in the drug smuggling which occurred in Australia.
We were SHOCKED! SHOCKED!!
U.S. State Secretary Powell, addressing the senate foreign relations committee on April 30, slandered the DPRK, saying North Korea is not only exporting missiles but narcotics as evidenced by what happened in Australia. The U.S. is building up public opinion by linking the drug smuggling case with the DPRK again at a time when the former is trying hard to refer the nuclear issue to the UNSC despite the realistic proposal made by the latter to settle it. This is part of Washington's moves to increase the international pressure on the DPRK.
Hey! Nukes and heroin! There's a great combination!
The DPRK government has consistently been opposed to the misuse and smuggling of drug and has nothing to do with the recent case. We have informed the Australian side that the ship "Pongsu" is a civilian trading ship and the ship owner's side has no idea of this at all.
"...no idea of this at all!!!"
We cannot but express surprise and regret at the fact that Australia is linking the case with the DPRK government by playing on the U.S. assertion. The origin of the case and the attempt to deliberately link the case with the DPRK from its very beginning compel us strongly suspect that the case is not a mere drug smuggling case but a premeditated case orchestrated to do harm to the DPRK and stifle it to the end under the pretext of its nuclear issue.
We were setup! Somebody planted 50 million in heroin on the Pongsu! That's not mine, you planted it?
We cannot but take a serious note of the fact that they are pulling up the party and government of the DPRK without any evidence even before the truth about the case is probed.
No evidence! That's powdered milk for starving African children!
We will closely watch how the case is dealt with and never tolerate any attempt to use the case for impairing the authority and dignity of the DPRK.
I can remember a couple of their diplomats getting bagged back in the 80's smuggling drugs in. They were sent home. Then I believe they were shot. Not for smuggling drugs, but for getting caught. I wouldn't want to be on the crew of the Pongsu.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 08:59 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  THAT'S why Kimmie thinks the way he does - he's the poster child for the "This is your brain on drugs" commercials - too much of his own bit'o poppy. There had to be SOME rational explanation.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 11:27 Comments || Top||


East/Subsaharan Africa
Guerrilla Boss Reported Killed in Liberia
Sam Bockarie, one of the most feared guerrilla fighters to emerge from more than a decade of overlapping wars in West Africa, was killed yesterday in a shootout with Liberian soldiers, the Liberian government announced.
Heard he was wounded, must have gotten worse.
Known as "Mosquito" because he said he sucked the life from his enemies, Bockarie had been a fugitive since March, when a special court investigating atrocities in his native Sierra Leone indicted him for crimes against humanity, including mass murder, enslavement, mutilation and rape.
Guess I'll cancel plans for that movie.
Yesterday in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, the spokesman for President Charles Taylor announced Bockarie's death, saying Taylor's erstwhile ally was killed while resisting arrest. Liberian authorities said Bockarie died in a shootout near the border with Ivory Coast, where he reportedly had been associated with an Ivorian rebel faction, but sources in Monrovia said Bockarie was killed near his home in the capital. "He is dead," Reginald Goodridge, Taylor's spokesman, told the Reuters news agency. "His body is right here."
"and he's beginning to get ripe"
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 09:14 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another gunny goes to Boot Hill in Africa's Wild, Wild West.
Posted by: Chuck || 05/07/2003 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like the "Mosquito" has gone to the big Bug Zapper in the sky.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 13:28 Comments || Top||


Microsoft Plans Toilets With Web Access
Is the Apocalypse upon us?
Now on the way: "Surfing on the loo" with Internet access at portable toilets. The iLoo being developed by the MSN division of Microsoft Corp. in Britain is a standard portable toilet — a loo to the English — with a wireless keyboard and extending, height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat. There would also be a "Hotmail station" with waterproof keyboard and plasma screen on the outside for those waiting in line.
Microsoft thinks of everything.
MSN officials say they're negotiating for the manufacture of toilet paper imprinted with Web addresses that users may not have tried.
That's really sick.
"The Internet's so much a part of everyday life now that surfing on the loo was the next natural step," MSN marketing manager Tracy Blacher said. "People used to reach for a book or mag(azine) when they were on the loo, but now they'll be logging on."
Hate to be waiting in that line.
The device is expected to be in use at festivals this summer in Britain, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday. There's no word on if, or when, the iLoo will make its way across the pond.
How many riots will there be at "festivals" in England this summer because people can't get into the porta potties?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 08:49 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wiping with web addresses? Hmmmm. Maybe if they used Gates' face more people would be interested.
Posted by: Scott || 05/07/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Won't Apple sue over the use of "iLoo"? I'm sure they have "i-everything" copyrighted by now.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't care if the keyboard's waterproof or not - I'm not touching it
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 9:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, yeah, baby! I sure want my business website showing up on toilet paper! Hint to Microsoft: a few extra portable toilets would be much more appreciated than slowing down the line.
Posted by: Tom || 05/07/2003 9:25 Comments || Top||

#5  MSN officials say they're negotiating for the manufacture of toilet paper imprinted with Web addresses that users may not have tried.

How about printing www.microsoft.com on each little square of TP instead?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/07/2003 9:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, don't make fun of MS ePaper(tm)!
Posted by: mojo || 05/07/2003 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  This reminds me of an "Onion" article from a couple of years ago. I can't imagine a place I would rather spend less time in than a porta potty.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 05/07/2003 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  I almost fell off the toilet while reading this one. ( Car and Driver, 4/03 )
Posted by: Lucky || 05/07/2003 10:39 Comments || Top||

#9  I expected this to be from the Onion or from Scrappleface!
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 12:16 Comments || Top||

#10  AP reports on some new, thin and flexible screens. Maybe that ePaper isn't too far off after all!
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 15:22 Comments || Top||


North Africa
Report: Six Algerian Soldiers Killed
Six Algerian soldiers were killed when suspected Islamic fighters bombed their vehicle and sprayed the survivors with gunfire, according to media reports on Wednesday. Militants from the extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Fighting, which targets police and other symbols of state, were suspected in the ambush Tuesday in the Boumerdes region, about 30 miles east of the capital, Algiers, the daily Liberte reported. The bomb, hidden next to a road, exploded as the soldiers' vehicle drove past, the newspaper said. Militants lying in wait shot the survivors.
They've had a lot of practice.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 08:53 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon
Bomb Kills Man Outside Missionaries’ Home
A bomb exploded outside the home of a Christian missionary couple in northern Lebanon, killing an Arab neighbor who attempted to dismantle it, security officials said Wednesday. Police said the bomb, estimated at around four pounds, exploded overnight outside the house of a Dutch missionary and his German wife in Qubba, a neighborhood in the predominantly Sunni Muslim port city of Tripoli. Neighbor Jamil Ahmed Rifai was killed instantly. Military officials said the victim, a Jordanian Muslim who had converted to evangelism, was at the couple's house when they heard a noise outside. Rifai found a bag shooting out sparks, the officials said. As he tried to dismantle the fuse the bomb exploded, they said.
God be with you, Jamil.
The explosion late Tuesday shattered windows of nearby houses and damaged parked cars. It was not immediately clear who planted the device. A military official told The Associated Press the bombing did not appear to be linked to anti-Western sentiment in Lebanon but was likely related to the Christian missionaries' activities.
I'd vote for all of the above.
Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, is home to Sunni fundamentalist groups. Qubba has a small Christian population.
Just got smaller.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 08:45 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting juxtaposition of this and next article. Tonight, they'll kill a Catholic.
Posted by: Scott || 05/07/2003 9:42 Comments || Top||


Korea
S. Korea: North Must Take First Step to Resolve Nuclear Standoff
EFL - at least SK seems to be on the same page
South Korea's Foreign Ministry says Pyongyang needs to take the first step in resolving its nuclear standoff with the United States. Seoul is telling the communist North that the move could lead to the security guarantees and economic aid that Pyongyang wants. South Korea's foreign minister on Wednesday called on North Korea to take what he termed a bold step and abandon its nuclear program in a "verifiable and irreversible manner." Yoon Young-kwan told reporters that without such a move, Washington is not likely to give Pyongyang what it wants — aid, a nonaggression treaty and diplomatic recognition. He also questioned Pyongyang's wisdom of making demands on Washington after breaking international agreements — especially given the world situation since the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Stop the nuke and WMD programs, feed the people instead of the army with Aid food, stop transferring weapons tech, stop drug shipping, get a haircut, the list never ends and only because of NK's behavior, nothing else
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 08:43 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Something worth a read.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/07/2003 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  they're just BEGGING to catch a tactical warhead aren't they? can you say pre-emptive? I knew you could
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Bomb-a-rama: That story is more than a bit scary. I'll admit I am naive and idealistic about a great many things - like: WHY Can't people try and be SANE?! I'm not necessarily one who has all the pips on the die, but DAMN! How much sense does it make to openly threaten and antagonize a people with the capability and history of taking care of business? How much sense does it make to openly trade something so noxious as a nuclear fucking weapon to a country like SYRIA - they don't necessarily want lots of them - just one will do! - who is entirely capable of using it and sparking off something resembling a movie that's given me nightmares since it first came out in the eighties - "The Day After." The alarmist in me has been holding off bunkering down since 9/11 when 2 good friends of mine died at the Pentagon - but I am sorely tempted to let the alarmist win. Can you say disillusioned with the entire world? I knew you could.
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 11:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Seriously, N. Korea tried to use the Iraqi war to their advantage through increasing the hostile rhetoric, thinking that we were couldn't handle juggling two balls at once. We made it clear that the tactic was not working, and now they are ELEVATING the rhetoric!!

Elections be damned, I think W needs to take care of N Korea NOW before a nuclear weapon is detonated on our, or one of our ally's, soil. Why are we waiting? I believe this administration is competent, so I will assume (hope?) that there is more to this situation than we know.

The upshot is, that if Asia goes nuclear, Japan will make a strong nuclear ally, and memories of WWII will cause N. Korea and China to think twice before causing any mischief. Just as we have proven our mettle, that we are more WWII doughboy than Vietnam veteran, I'm sure the Japanese still have that WWII fierceness in their cultural memory.
Posted by: mjh || 05/07/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#5  NK is playing brinksmanship and a very large game of chicken. They are upping the rhetoric to get us to join in. We are not biting, so they keep turning it up. Now we need to seriously up the heat on China, esp. with their SARS epidemic going full tilt. China is going to have to muzzle their little mean dog, or we will have to do it. But we are going to deal with with these psychopaths this time. They have been fermenting for only 50 years, and they are getting ripe.....and Slick Willie, Jimmah and Half-Bright sent the wrong message to the mad dog.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:00 Comments || Top||

#6  The louder and more franctically the NKors squeal, cajole, and threaten, the more desperate they look. Something must truly be wrong there--the regime is tottering, the economy is even worse than it appears, or *something* is going on there to make them so desperate they just won't give a damn about putting the world back on the brink of nuclear war.
Posted by: Dar || 05/07/2003 13:08 Comments || Top||

#7  I just hope that NKor craters without sending up a roman candle, especially for Seoul's sake.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 13:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Hmmmmm. Kimmie may have been playing with germs, and SARS is actually a NKor "experiment" that got loose. That would explain the belicose nature of all the dialogue to date. Either that, or the Army is in trouble - lack of food, lack of supplies (gas has always been rationed), and so forth. There's little been put into the infrastructure unless it's for the military. Things just maybe are falling apart, and the rotten carcass underneath is beginning to show. Would LOVE to be back at Offutt for a few weeks...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/07/2003 17:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front
UC Berkeley program funded by Saudis with links to terrorism
EFL
UC Berkeley administrators ignored reports yesterday that a campus Middle Eastern studies program has accepted significant funds from groups and individuals linked to terrorism by the US State Department.
Tap...tap...tap, no surprise here.
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies runs two programs whose stated missions are to increase “understanding of Islam and of Muslim peoples and cultures in the United States and around the world.” But those programs are funded by a Saudi businessman and a member of the Saudi royal family who the State Department maintains are responsible for funneling money to groups that sponsor terrorism.
Gee, who'd have guessed that terrorist groups and Saudi money would be mentioned in the same story?
The center’s Sultan Program is named for and funded by Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the second deputy prime minister of Saudi Arabia. Al Saud has been implicated as having a direct hand in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and is currently a defendant in the $1 trillion class action lawsuit filed by the families of the attacks’ victims. “At best, Prince Sultan (al Saud) was grossly negligent in the oversight and administration of charitable funds, knowing they would be used to sponsor international terrorism, but turning a blind eye,” states the brief filed by the victims’ attorneys. “At worst, Prince Sultan directly aided and abetted and materially sponsored al Qaeda and international terrorism.”
I'll take "What is aided and abetted?" for $200, Alex.
Al Saud, also the Saudi minister of defense, chairs the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, charged with reviewing and granting aid requests from Islamic organizations. Since Al Saud has administered charitable giving for the kingdom, it has funded organizations the federal government and UN have acknowledged aid and abet terrorism. They include the International Islamic Relief Organization, al-Haramain, Muslim World League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Al Saud was publicly thanked for his contributions to the International Islamic Relief Organization by the organization’s secretary general just 10 months before the Sept. 11 attacks. That organization has been connected with the funding of al Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It has also been directly linked with the 1993 World Trade Center Bombings, plots to assassinate former President Clinton and the Pope, as well as plans to destroy the Lincoln Tunnel and Brooklyn Bridge. It is headed by Mohammed Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law who the federal government has branded a principal leader of global terrorism.

University administrators declined to comment on the connections between the center’s benefactors and terrorism. But the vice chair of the center did acknowledge the programs receive funding from Al Saud and another organization with ties to terrorism. UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies also houses the Al-Falah program, whose principal benefactor is Xenel Industries, a Saudi conglomerate. The company’s CEO is Abdullah Alireza, who is on the executive board of Dar al-Maal-Islami, a bank managed by Osama bin Laden’s brother, which the UN acknowledges funds terrorist activity. Reports of the connection between the UC Berkeley center’s funding and terrorism were first broken by the Berkeley Jewish Journal, a new UC Berkeley student magazine. Gottreich attacked the writers of the article, calling them proponents of “the most extreme form of right-wing Zionism.” But the editor of the Jewish magazine, Robert Enyati, criticized Gottreich’s “name calling,” saying it “very clearly shows the agenda of the institution.” Gottreich went on to praise the multi-partisan programs promoted by the center, saying its officials are “proud of its record of providing a forum for a wide variety of Middle East-related voices on the UC campus.”
"We promote both anti-american and anti-israeli voices."
But many prominent professors of the program do not exactly have a strong track record of supporting the United States and Israel. The center’s chair, for instance, Professor Nezar Al Sayyad has been a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and President Bush. He has told an audience at a campus forum on the war that “when the media speaks about the president and his two sons, I no longer know which president they are speaking of.” He also disputed the 2000 election results and said he would “weep for my country” while “condemning the current administration.” And the center’s Daniel Boyarin, a near eastern studies professor, told The Daily Californian that “(former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak is an evil man, he is a violent man, a racist and a liar.”
Maybe we need some Berkeley trading cards.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 08:13 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I seriously question whether any stories about Berkeley should be filed under HomeFront
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  True, I should have filed it under Terror Networks.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  'former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak is an evil man, ... and a liar.” '

What, have these guys been reading Arutz Sheva?



Posted by: liberalhawk || 05/07/2003 9:11 Comments || Top||

#4  When I was a freshman in Berkeley in 1967, we had quite a few Israeli students. When the 67 war broke out, they had their bags packed and were ready to go, but never were called. There was genuine support for Israel then, but now...it is pretty sad. I am glad someone is following the money and exposing these people fronting as scholars who have ruined a once great university.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/07/2003 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Thank you Rantburg. Out here in Baghdad By the Bay Area, this has yet to be reported on...noone except the Cal Patriot (who broke the story) and my KSFO talk radio reality fix has carried this. Hey, if it's not reported on, it didn't happen right? ....right?
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/07/2003 11:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Doesn't this go under Fifth Column?
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 12:11 Comments || Top||

#7  You say that like you're suprised? Actually, sad to say, Beserkly is only one campus of the UC system that is overwhelmingly leftist/anarchist.
Posted by: Anonymous Troll || 05/07/2003 22:02 Comments || Top||


North Africa
’No talks’ over missing tourists
The fate of 31 European tourists feared kidnapped in the Sahara desert has grown murkier after the Algerian Government denied that talks were under way with their presumed captors. "I can tell you there are no negotiations, there is no contact with anyone," Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said on state-run radio. On Sunday, state radio quoted the Algerian tourism minister as saying discussions with the hostage-takers had begun, but his statement was categorically denied by his ministry the next day. Some of the tourists - 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss nationals, a Dutchman and a Swede - have been missing since February.
I think that there are talks, but they are trying to keep them quiet.
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 07:59 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It will be telling to observe what the Germans, and their fellow weasils, the Austrians and Swedes actually do to protect their citizens (if anything).
Posted by: George H. Beckwith || 05/07/2003 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  They stopped the Algerian military from going in and rescuing the hostages to begin with, if I remember correctly, for fear that the GSPC would kill the hostages. The GSPC likely wants members of their group captured by the Algerian government released and is using the tourists as leverage. I think the whole reason for denying the talks has to do with the fact that Algerians don't want to admit that their being pressured into negotiations with these barbarians.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/07/2003 9:06 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Blast kills Hamas commander
An explosion near the West Bank town of Nablus has killed a commander of the Palestinian militant group wanted for attacks on Israelis. Local residents said they believed an Israeli rocket had hit the building where 28-year-old Amin Menzalawi was hiding. But Palestinian firefighters reportedly said the blast had come from inside the flat in the village of Zawata.
Sounds like another "work accident".
Israeli military sources said they had no connection to the explosion.
"Wasn't us."
The man killed in Zawata was a member of Hamas's armed wing who had been on the run from Israel for two years. Palestinian and Hamas sources say he was killed by Israeli soldiers who had imposed a curfew on the village on Wednesday morning before opening fire on his flat. Israeli forces have killed scores of Palestinian militants during the current uprising. Dozens of militant bombers have also been blown up by their own devices while preparing for attacks.
"Hey, what does this wire do?"
Posted by: Steve || 05/07/2003 07:49 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't matter how the little turd was taken apart; the world is a wee bit better off with one less terrorist.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/07/2003 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  "Dozens of militant bombers have also been blown up by their own devices while preparing for attacks." Perhaps because smart people are more likely to commit crimethink(and therefore get executed)?
Posted by: KP || 05/07/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Must be a bitch for these guys to get group health insurance. Mutual of Ramallah would be out of business in two weeks the way these retards keep blowing themselves up.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 13:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Shhhhh! Pretend not to notice. They might stop.
Posted by: Fred || 05/07/2003 18:50 Comments || Top||


Korea
Kimmie Enjoys "Light Military Comedy"
Reclusive communist leader Kim Jong-il has taken a break from North Korea's nuclear showdown with the United States to enjoy a light military comedy.
Ok, what the hell is a "light military comedy"? Hugh Grant with an AK-47?
Kim joined army generals and officials of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) to take in a "light comedy spiced with scenes making one laugh and bringing tears to one's eyes", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday. A lover of cinema and drama, Kim pronounced the rib-tickling production by the army's April 25 Film Studio as "another excellent work great in cognitional and educational significance and flawless in ideological content and artistry", KCNA added. Like most works in North Korea, the play trumpeted Kim's "songun" (army-first) policies which give the North's million-strong military a lead role in society, KCNA said. It did not say when the show in Pyongyang took place. "The creators and artistes of the studio truthfully represented the great vitality of the songun leadership of the WPK and the philosophical truth that one can live only when one remains true to the WPK's songun leadership," it said. Kim has made a series of trips to military bases since he emerged last month from an nervous breakdown similar to Stalin's after Hitler invaded unexplained 50-day absence from public view during the height of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 05/07/2003 01:20 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...emerged last month from an...unexplained 50-day absence from public view during the height of the U.S.-led war in Iraq."

Air was getting a little stale in the bunker.
Posted by: Esoteric || 05/07/2003 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I can't do a better parody than KCNA, dammit. You sure this isn't from The Onion or Scrappleface?

"A lover of cinema and drama, Kim pronounced the rib-tickling production by the army's April 25 Film Studio as "another excellent work great in cognitional and educational significance and flawless in ideological content and artistry"

watch out Matrix Reloaded - this will be a blockbuster!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/07/2003 9:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Frank - nope, this is originally from Reuters, according to Yahoo News. But it sure sounds like a parody, doesn't it?
Posted by: Baba Yaga || 05/07/2003 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Light Military Comedy - HMS Pinafore with Juche instead of mops? Cousin Kimmie instead of Cousin Hebe? What will we do with Poor Little Buttercup? She's likely to be eaten by the movie-goers... Grass, flowers... All fair game...
Posted by: Tadderly || 05/07/2003 11:00 Comments || Top||

#5  "...philosophical truth that one can live only when one remains true to the WPK's songun leadership."
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/07/2003 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Next weeks production, "This Is The Peoples Army, Mr. Sung" which culminates in the famous "sea of fire " scene in which everyone runs amuck. Songun Juche and flower baskets for everybody after the show.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/07/2003 15:40 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2003-05-07
  Damascus: No secret contacts with Israel
Tue 2003-05-06
  Biggest bank job in history
Mon 2003-05-05
  Pak Will Destroy Nukes if India Does
Sun 2003-05-04
  Syria Paleos say no change after Powell trip
Sat 2003-05-03
  Syria to close Damascus terror offices
Fri 2003-05-02
  Afghan Governor Says 60 Taliban Arrested
Thu 2003-05-01
  France Ready for Postwar Role in Iraq. Really.
Wed 2003-04-30
  France denies giving information to Saddam
Tue 2003-04-29
  U.S. pulling out of Soddy Arabia
Mon 2003-04-28
  Paris and Berlin prepare alliance to rival NATO
Sun 2003-04-27
  Galloway may be tried as a traitor
Sat 2003-04-26
  We Will Join U.S.-Installed Government: Iraqi Scholar
Fri 2003-04-25
  Booze and smokes in Baghdad
Thu 2003-04-24
  North Korea nuclear talks end
Wed 2003-04-23
  North Korea nuclear talks begin

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