#6
Hi... ummm... let me have some of those porno magazines... large box of condoms... a couple of those panty shields and some illegal fireworks and one of those disposable enemas. Ehhh... make it two.
#8
ohhhhh! that bin laden is a nefarious character indeed! Clearly, he plans to supply us with cheap marijuana and bring us to our knees by overcharging us for when we all get the munchies. I'll never look at a twinkie the same way again. Oh...and he has a good chance of succeeding.
From Jihad Unspun
According to Sana News, a spokesman for Taliban in southern Afghanistan, Maulvi Mahmood Ullah Haq Yar has said that the reports of divisions amongst the Taliban are false and that Mullah Mohammad Omar remains the supreme leader of Taliban. He said that the Taliban leadership has been organized in such a fashion that a 10 member Shura Committee is in charge of Taliban activities with Mullah Mohammad Omar leading the Council. The Shura appointed Hamid Agha as the main spokesman for the Taliban while Said ul Adil has been appointed Agha's representative. The Taliban have have different spokesman in each region who get authorization from Agha before releasing reports. The Shura can reorganize the Taliban leadership every six months and have the power to and fire or remove any Taliban commander other than Mullah Omar. This practice was in place even during the time the Taliban government ruled Afghanistan. The next meeting of the Shura will be next month and future policies are expected to be sanctioned at that time. Maulvi said that all thanks is to Allah that the Taliban is now organized and better equipped to continue its struggle against Kufr in the country. He also said that Maulvi Wakik Ahmed Mutawakkil, who was recently released from Cuba has not established direct relations with Taliban. He went on to say that should the Karzai government persuade Mutawakkil to join their government that it would have no effect in the Taliban struggle and should not be taken as the Taliban accepting the regime of Hamid Karzai.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 6:41:49 AM ||
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#1
Frequent reorganization - must be using the LA Clipper business model, hopefully, with the same results.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 8:09 Comments ||
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Diplomatic relations between Libya and the United States could be restored by the end of the year, the leader of a U.S. Congressional delegation said Monday as he arrived in the capital for his second visit in a month. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., was leading a seven-member delegation that planned to meet Tuesday with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi and the nation's prime minister, Shokri Ghanem. "Our administration laid out a time frame. As long as this timetable is agreed to, we are optimistic that we can see full diplomatic relations before the end of the year," Weldon said. Washington invited American companies to begin planning their return to Libya and encouraged Tripoli to open in Washington an "interests section," a diplomatic office a level beneath an embassy. The United States also will expand its diplomatic presence in Tripoli.
Fred's plan to get the concession at the O-Club at Wheelus is looking better and better.
Flight Line Lounge, here we come!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 02:29 ||
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Will Fred keep the sixties decor or go with a caliphate modern look?
Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zindani, head of Islah's Consultative Council, denied US allegations on his involvement in terrorists' support.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
In a press statement distributed Friday evening, al-Zindani said "I am happy to announce to the people my denial to the US Treasury Department charges and if the USA has any evidences, they must be presented to the Yemeni judiciary." He added, "The Yemeni government is concerned with defending its citizens and I am a Yemeni citizen." Al-Zindani stressed that he condemns terrorism as defined by Muslim clerics and it is can be summarized as that act in which arms are used beyond Sharia'a and law or killing of innocent people. "Such an act is terrorism which I condemn in all its forms and I already announced that several times," he said.
The US Treasury Department announced Tuesday that al-Zindani, Rector of al-Eman (Religious) University, has been added to the American government's list of people suspected of supporting terrorist activities. This statement of al-Zindani came out after intensive meetings for high ranking leaders of the Islah party headed by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein al-Ahmar who is also a prime leader of Hashid Tribe and speaker of parliament. Al-Zindani called a press conference Thursday to comment on the US allegations but when journalists were at the spot, al-Zindani refused to be filmed or recorded and said that Islah leadership would hold an emergency meeting to reply to the US charges. He said that he could not comment unless he receives documents of the charges by the Americans.
Doesn't want to say anything he might have to retract later? Usually they just deny everything, even if there are pictures...
On Friday, an emergency meeting for the Islah top leaders came out with a short statement saying that "Islah leadership holds the State responsible for refuting the US allegations against Sheikh Abdulmajeed al-Zindani because he is a Yemeni citizen." Before this meeting, Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar met the US ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull and discussed with him al-Zindani issue. Al-Ahmar asked Hull for details about the US charges for al-Zindani but Hull, according to reliable sources, told al-Ahmar that he does not have those details. Al-Ahmar even moved along with some Islah leaders to Hadramaut on Friday to meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh to see how the US allegations can be answered. Al-Zindani was described by the US Treasury Department as a "loyalist" to Osama bin Laden, adding that he "has a long history of working with Bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders." It also said that al-Zindani has actively recruited for al-Qaeda's terrorist training camps and played a role in the purchase of weapons for al-Qaeda and other terrorists. The US has ordered freezing of al-Zindani financial assets and plans to ask the UN to add al-Zindani to its blocking list.
Yemen Times tried to contact the US embassy to get any official comment on this case but they apologized because it is very sensitive and critical and they do not want to be misquoted. However, John Ballian, Public Affairs Officer at the US embassy in Sana'a said a press statement that adding al-Zindani to the US terrorist suspect list does not "constitute a request for extradition". Political analysts described the Islah response to the charges as "clever and cautious" as it does not want to defend him before things become clear, putting the case at the hand of the state because he is a Yemeni citizen and that Islah is not a government but a political party that has no embassies through which to contact the US administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 22:10 ||
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Forty-four people were killed, 873 injured, 908 arrested and two were abducted in political violence in the country [Bangladesh] last month, said Odhikar after compiling different media reports. Thirteen people died in police and jail custody and three of them died allegedly from torture by law enforcers, said the organisation. Some 127 incidents of violence against children took place. Thirty children died, 15 injured, 22 raped and 27 abducted in these incidents. Besides, 12 children were missing, five arrested, eight trafficked while six committed suicides and two sustained acid injuries. Three journalists were injured, three assaulted and one arrested. In addition, 37 journalists were threatened and cases were filed against 13. Twenty women died in dowry-related incidents while seven others were acid-burnt. The report said 67 women were raped during the last month. Of them, 25 were gang-raped, 14 killed after the rape and one committed suicide after being raped. In Chittagong Hill Tracts region, seven people were killed, 10 injured, and 16 abducted during the period.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 21:48 ||
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Police raided the Awami League (AL) headquarters and clubbed its leaders and activists at will before picking up at least 150 of them in a frenzied action after bomb injury to a havildar yesterday. They also obstructed the motorcade of Leader of the Opposition and AL chief Sheikh Hasina, who was heading for her party headquarters on hearing the mayhem, triggering widespread chaos and confusion. Police said they seized a revolver and 14 cocktails from the AL office in a claim contradicted by journalists on the scene.
Inconvenient, that...
Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury issued a sharp warning to the main opposition in the wake of the violence, saying the government would not allow attack on law enforcers. When Hasina reached Bangabandhu Avenue 80 minutes after taking the troubled journey from her Dhanmondi house, a brownout plunged the area into darkness.
Quite by coincidence, of course...
Witnesses said the mayhem broke out at about 4:15pm when a hand-made bomb went off in front of the Muktijoddha Sangsad office and police in force swooped on the activists of Jubo League, youth front of the AL, who were preparing to hold a scheduled rally on nearby Bangabandhu Avenue. The bomb injured Havildar Nur Mohammad, 35, who formed part of the four-platoon police deployment near the AL central office, prompting his colleagues to go on the rampage. The law enforcers defied requests for calm from senior AL leaders including Abdur Razzak and Rahmat Ali and surged into the AL headquarters in riot gear breaking open the locks. They forced their way into every room of the five-storey building and beat up the opposition leaders and activists indiscriminately. Although Nur could not give the direction of the bomb's flight, his colleagues claimed AL activists hurled it dismissing witness accounts that two young men exploded the bomb, coming out of the Pir Yamini market.
Sounds like they believed what they wanted to believe...
As the leaders and activists of the AL and its front organisations were trying to hide in the washrooms and other apparently safe places in the party headquarters, policemen dragged about 150 of them onto their vans after beating. Coming to the ground floor from upstairs of the AL headquarters with a black bag, police claimed that it contained the arms and explosives, but journalists on the scene reported they saw police to dump some ink pots into a bucket of water from the bag. As journalists contradicted the police claim, the law enforcers asked them to leave the scene.
This is a masterpiece of subtlety...
Hasina's motorcade was obstructed at Science Laboratory, Shahbagh, Matshya Bhaban crossings and at Zero Point, before she reached the headquarters to be cordoned off by policemen amid the brownout. Talking to reporters on the scene lit up by a rechargeable light, she said the drama was staged to divert the nation's attention from the attack on prominent writer Humayun Azad.
And to thump the loyal opposition...
She accused the prime minister, home minister and state minister for home of masterminding the scheme to unleash policemen on opposition activists.
And it sounds like she's right...
The home minister in the Jatiya Sangsad statement said eight to 10 bombs were hurled at the police from the AL headquarters.
Yeah. That sounds like a bright thing to do...
He also focussed on the arms recovery and said: "We'll not tolerate any attack on police. Soon we'll arrest the people responsible for the attack."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 21:44 ||
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The condition of noted writer Prof. Humayun Azad, who was grievously hurt by unknown assailants in Dhaka Friday night, has improved further at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), where he is receiving treatment at the directive of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Azad has regained consciousness and talked to his wife and the attending physicians, according to an official announcement on his health condition released yesterday morning. The ventilation machine providing life support to Prof. Azad was removed as his condition slightly improved. But he was given oxygen sometimes. "But he is yet to be out of danger," said a source close to the medical team of the Combined Military Hospital taking intensive care of the Dhaka University teacher. "Now he can respond to verbal command," he told newsmen, adding that Prof. Azad had a slight fever yesterday. "His blood pressure, pulse, urine output, hemoglobin level looked almost normal," said the source. The police, meanwhile, could neither arrest anyone for the attack nor unearth the motive behind the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 21:34 ||
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I give this one an 8.5 on a scale of 10 -- note how intelligence agencies in multiple countries who can't stand one another somehow cooperate Kelly was Murdered' Says UK Intelligence Insider
Simon Aronowitz: ThoughtCrimeNews.com/PrisonPlanet.com
Shocking new details about the death of Dr David Kelly emerged exclusively today on the Alex Jones radio show. Michael Shrimpton, a UK national security lawyer who was a guest on the show, revealed that sources within MI5 and MI6 are `furious' that Kelly was murdered. Shrimpton spoke in depth about the details of Kelly's murder on 17th July 2003, information which has been withheld by the British press. With apparent appearances are all in a good conspiracy theory
backing from the organisations whose members he claims to speak for, Shrimpton presented their view that Dr Kelly had been murdered by a team of assassins and the charade of an apparent suicide was then played out to cover this up.
Were they Samoans? I think I saw this in a Woody Allen movie, years ago, when he was funny...
Speaking with impeccable credentials, including contributions to the Journal for International Security Affairs and having previously given a closed-doors confidential briefing to the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Shrimpton exploded the much-reported myth that Dr Kelly had taken his own life. He spoke of the probable method of Kelly's death, the group which most likely carried out the assassination, who arranged it and finally where the responsibility lies. Additionally, he explained the political context and motive for Kelly's murder.
We keep falling back into this bad novel. This is supposed to be taking place in the parlour, after LeGume assembles all the suspects...
David Kelly went missing on 17th July 2003 and was found dead on 18th July. In the previous days, Kelly had testified before Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee that he was not the source of a BBC story which had accused the Government of making false claims about Iraq's WMD. When Kelly's body was found, the British press quickly reported it as a suicide, though several analysts had their doubts. On Jones' show, Shrimpton explained how he had learned that David Kelly was the BBC's source before the BBC disclosed this fact. He went on to explain that his source from within the intelligence community knew David Kelly personally, and did not believe that he had committed suicide.
"That's right, Inspector! He couldn't have committed suicide! We were in love! We were going to run away together..."
After making their own enquiries, says Shrimpton, this source determined that Dr Kelly had not committed suicide, but rather had been assassinated. Apparently what a wonderful word!
at ease to discuss these explosive disclosures, Shrimpton explained that there was advance knowledge of Kelly's death in Whitehall, but that the deed itself was most likely carried out by the French external security organisation, DGSE.
"Alistair, he must be removed. But we can't do it ourselves."
"Perhaps we should ask our good friends across the channel, M?"
There was no indication that anybody in MI5 or MI6 had been involved. He went further by suggesting that the hit squad itself was composed of Iraqis from the former regime's Mukhabarat intelligence organisation, recruited from Damascus with the help of Syria's own intelligence apparatus.
"Colonel de Rierre, we have been requested by our friends on the other side of the channel to bump off one of their nationals, a fairly important man in the government. His Excellency, M. le President, has agreed. Whom shall we use for this most delicate mission?"
"How about some Iraqis, mon general?"
"Zoot alors! Brilliant, Colonel de Rierre! Simply brilliant!"
They were apparently then flown into Corsica, seven days prior to the murder. He doubts that any of the hit-squad are still alive. how convenient!
Officially, Kelly's body was said to have been found in a copse, in a wood, but the forensic tents were set up in the adjacent field, suggesting, says Shrimpton, that the body was found in the field. This has not been explained to his satisfaction. after all, woods are the obvious place to set up tents!
The incision in Kelly's wrist was probably to conceal the injection of both Dextroprypoxythene, the active ingredient in Co-Proxamol, and Succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant, rather than as evidence of his bleeding to death, as highlighted by a group of six doctors in letters published in the British press. Shrimpton further agreed with the doctors by pointing out that Kelly only had one Co-Proxamol tablet in his body and that this was not sufficient to kill him.
I'd have used iocane instead. It's colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Everybody knows that. Those Frenchies were way behind the curve.
According to Shrimpton, Kelly was murdered because he had been talking to the press and there was a fear of what else he might discuss with journalists.
"Alistair, he must be stopped! There's no telling what he might say!"
"Of course, sir. I'll call the French right now."
Furthermore, Kelly was due to return to Iraq and may have learned fresh information on that trip which Whitehall could not afford to trust him with. ah, now we get to the heart of the matter
Shrimpton's appearance on Jones' show gave him the first public opportunity to bring forward his information, since the story has been effectively censored by the British Press, who according to Shrimpton are concerned about losing the pro-Euro Tony Blair as Prime Minister were they to publish details of Kelly's assassination. not to mention their credibility if they gave space to this garbage
Blair's departure, he says, could threaten Britain's proposed adoption of the Euro as the national currency. Whilst this story begins to circulate in the USA, the coverage in the UK may well remain nil, whilst maneuvering behind the scenes attempts to pre-empt Shrimpton's accusation of government-sanctioned murder of one of its own operatives.
"Alistair! This man Shrimpton! He knows too much!"
"Yes, sir. Shall I call the Frenchies again?"
"No, Alistair. That would not be subtle. This time we must use... the Samoans!"
"Dear Gawd, sir! Not... Not... Not the Samoans!"
Only with public support, and a belief that this information should be widely known, and a good supply of tin foil headgear
can this information be brought into the wide open and covered by the mainstream media.
#1
hey don't knock the tin foil gang, we need people like them to laugh at and ammuse us with thier outlandish claims. A guy at work the other day was trying to tell me that Saddam and Osama were both CIA agents,was a real hoot listening to that. People like these beleive the Earth is under the control of evil greys and the earth being 'hollow' is another classic - supposedly a whole other world down there....
#2
The French and the Syrians in cahoots with Whitehall.Al-Guardian,BBC,the Spectator and the Sun suppress the truth to protect Tony Blair!
Makes sense to me.Somebody call Michael Moore.This is right up his alley.
Posted by: El Id ||
03/02/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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French external security organisation, DGSE.
Hit squad was composed of Iraqis
With the help of Syria’s own intelligence apparatus.
Dextroprypoxythene (Googled it, 1 link, this article)
Not elegant enough, I give it a 5.8-5.9 on the David Icke scale.
#4
ahh good old Icke, what a laugh that fella is,last thing i heard he said a month or two ago was that the queen mother is actually an 8 foot tall shape shifting reptilian being. Absolutly hillerious
#10
Don't want to cast doubts on anything, but just a comment: The JFK assassination has been the source of tons of conspiracy theories. According to a couple of things I've read recently from respectible people, there may be a kernal of truth to them. The possibility exists for any conspiracy theory to have a grain of truth or two tucked into that one hundred miles of sandy beach! Unfortunately, that's what keeps them alive and growing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2004 15:36 Comments ||
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#11
Any hit would have been done a lot better than this one. I would have gone for the standard assassination auto accident.
#12
No traffic accidents. They have not worked since the DGSE bungled the Princess Diana affair. Or was it Turkish Intelligence hiring those Sardinian chaps? My beanie isn't working very well since Chainey started using phase shifting technology on Howard Dean.
Posted by: john ||
03/02/2004 20:47 Comments ||
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U.S. officials working to combat the international drug trade are warning of possible future links between al-Qaida and drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico. Harold Wankel, the assistant administrator for intelligence at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, says U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that al-Qaida terrorists will also turn to international drug trafficking and Colombian organized crime to transport funds, people, and banned weapons. "If al-Qaida comes to South America and they need to get something done in the United States that requires movement, whether it is movement of commodity or movement of people, they need not set up infrastructure, they need not set up an operation capable of doing that," he said. "They need to get x-number of dollars and go to the people who are the professionals, the people that are the best at it, and that is the Colombian and Mexican organized criminal groups that are closely aligned these days." Mr. Wankel says al-Qaida sympathizers in Latin America could turn to the drug trafficking network as the international crackdown on al-Qaida's finances dries up funds.
Colombia's ambassador to the United States, Luis Alberto Moreno, says Colombian authorities, are monitoring possible collaboration between Muslim extremists and drug cartels. "There is always going to be an opportunity for any one group to try to develop that. We have very respectable people from Arab communities in our country who have legitimate businesses," he said. "There are other people in the illegal business of smuggling products into our country and they could be, at one point, a link to it. We have not seen it, so far. We monitor it constantly, but yes, this something that could develop."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/02/2004 12:31:51 AM ||
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#1
This is actually the premise of a Tom Clancy novel, the Teeth of the Tiger.
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin used stern language Monday to urge his military to correct flaws that plagued last month's exercises and marred his efforts to showcase Russia's might. The ambitious maneuvers of Russian strategic forces, which were attended by Putin and described as the largest in more than 20 years, were set back by failed missile launches from nuclear submarines on two consecutive days.
Oh-oh, someone's gonna get impaled.
Without mentioning any details in brief televised comments, Putin urged the military to thoroughly investigate the "shortcomings" and make sure they don't happen again. Speaking at the start of a meeting with government officials, Putin also said he would like to personally see proof that the flaws have been fixed - an apparent indication that he wants to watch repeat missile launches.
"I paid mah two bits to see that rabbit dive into that glass o' water, and I'm a gonn-n-a see it!"
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov responded that a team of investigators had already been working at the Northern Fleet. A missile launch from the Novomoskovsk nuclear submarine didn't take place as scheduled on Feb. 17, and the navy claimed that it had never been planned despite numerous earlier statements to the contrary. Government and military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that the RSM-54 missile failed to come out of its silo because of an unspecified technical problem.
"We can say no more!"
In an apparent attempt to save face after the failure, the navy sent another Northern Fleet nuclear submarine to the Barents Sea to repeat the launch the next day - only to fail again. The missile strayed from its designated flight path and was blown up by its automatic self-destruction system.
Someone's got a new command in Norilsk counting trees.
State-controlled television stations, which give blanket coverage to Putin's activities, avoided mentioning the failed launches.
Isn't that like, you know, ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 00:02 ||
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#1
Almost feel sorry for Vlad and the boys.Eastern neighbor China is rearming at a furious rate with Russian equipment that Russia can't afford,to the south those madmen in Iran are trying to build nukes and to the west,instead of a nice pacifist Europe,Poland is offering bases to the US.The Russian attempt to show strength flounders when the Navy can't get its missiles up.Fearless and free prediction:w/in next 90 days Putin will say nice things about US,and immediately after US election will visit US.
Posted by: Stephen ||
03/02/2004 1:29 Comments ||
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#2
Navy? Eh? The Russian Navy effectively aint existant, they just announced (article on it was over on strategypage.com) that they would no longer be building any more aircraft carriers or large warships and would stick to frigate size and smaller vessels. Now I do wonder what this means for the budget for the boomers, but then every time I keep looking at the Russian navy have I have a case of the giggles. Hmm..is this a case of insanity coming on ya think?
#5
The Russians never had a full operational in the class of a Nimitz. They did have some smaller carrier .. like the frogs and Brits....
Yes I agree with Stephen - The Russians are in a hard place, but they are doing it to them selves.
Selling advanced hardware to the chicoms, nuclear tech to the mulla's. Just inviting uncle sam into their area.
They put their broken ego's away and ask the US for some strategic help. Within 20 years Siberia will be part of greater china - already more illegal chinks there than ethnic Russians. And with the state in overall decline it is only a matter of time.
Posted by: Dan ||
03/02/2004 10:55 Comments ||
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#6
The Russian attempt to show strength flounders when the Navy can't get its missiles up.
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription req'd....
North Korea's recent dispatch of a government delegation to Libya is aimed at observing the fallout from the Arab nation's decision to give up its nuclear weapons program, a Seoul-based diplomat said. Can we dream that the NORKS are not immune to ClueBats, or is it a wily trick?
A delegation, led by State Planning Commission Chairman Kim Kwang-Rin, traveled to Libya on Feb. 21, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. The report said the "economic delegation" would participate in the joint committee for the two countries. The delegation includes Jo Yong-Nam, vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission, and Ri Ryong-Nam, vice-minister of foreign trade. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and Libya's surrender to pressure to abandon weapons of mass destruction, North Korea is increasingly concerned about its fate, said Choi Jin-Wook, a researcher at the Korean Institute for National Unification. they naturally should be
While reports of the visit did not identify its main purpose, a Western diplomat said the high-level trip was aimed at exploring the aftermath of Libya's bombshell anti-nuclear declaration. That certainly got the NORK'S attention!
"North Koreans would try to see what is happening in Libya after its decision to accept U.S. calls for the dismantlement of nuclear weapons," the diplomat said. "Bilateral relations between Libya and the United States are rapidly improving since the Tripoli decision," he said. Of course, we are going to have to do some colonoscopies to verify that the NORKS are indeed dismantling their WMD production facilities. That will part of the deal.
"The North Korean delegation wants to assess economic benefits Libya would be given from the United States and its allies in return for scrapping its atomic weapons," the diplomat continued. The United States is moving quickly to relax economic sanctions and rehabilitate Libya, he said. Well, for one thing, Libya has something useful to sell: oil. What do the NORKS have, any minerals? We are not going to shower them with gifts and prop up their regime. THAT is what they are looking for. They got the Quid down. The Pro Quo part needs a bit more work.
The diplomat interpreted the North Korean visit as a sign that the defiant communist nation might follow the Libyan precedent to end the 16-month-long nuclear standoff. The United States has said it is ready to provide security assurances and economic aid to North Korea in exchange for the dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear weapon programs. Hmmm...how much aid and in what form? Details please, I am always afraid that we will give away the farm, like Clinton did.
Libya admitted in December it had weapons of mass destruction and vowed to renounce them. Iran promised to allow international inspectors to check its nuclear facilities. The decisions followed the capture of Saddam Hussein. The North Korean visit to Libya came during the second round of six-party talks seeking ways to end the nuclear impasse. North Korea and Libya are on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Rightly put on the list, I might say.
I think Libya's going to come off, though, and maybe with good reason. Mummar's got a dynasty to think of, and the international criminal mastermind approach didn't work. But I still don't think he's sure what to do next.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2004 10:11:11 PM ||
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#1
I'm thinking these guys won't wanna go home once they get a taste of the Macallan at Wheelus OC with Mo and Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2004 22:18 Comments ||
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#2
After giving NK gifts and cash, billy allowed NK to keep its nuke reactors, fuel reprocessing facility, spent fuel rods, underground uranium enrichment program and nuke warhead(s). President Bush has NOT and will NOT play the left-wing's appeasement game. NK will dismantle its nuke reactors and fuel reprocessing plant; and give up its spent fuel rods, enriched uranium, and nuke warheads. Then they will get a pat on the ass from President Bush, and yet more access to the ever-generous South Koreans' and Japanese' treasuries. And Hanoi John will bleat on and on 'bout he would have done it better and faster.
#3
While we should allow ourselves some wishful thinking, the Norks are unlikely to follow in the Col's footsteps.
First, Kimmy is an order of magnitude nuttier than Kadafy, who was at best 2nd runner up in that department before Sammy went to ground.
Second, we can offer the Col. carrots as well as sticks from an economic, legacy and security standpoint. Kimmy is deluded enough right now to think of his neighbors as his 'friends' (thanks to a corrupt SK government that would otherwise be the 'bad cop' instead of the US), he understands that true economic liberalization would quickly lead to his demise and some sort of anschluss with the South. Plus, even he can understand that his kids are clearly less fit to lead than he is.
In contrast, Kadafy now dreams of an 'alliance' with the Anglo Americans that will secure his preeminence in Africa and much of the Arab world and free him to pursue trade and tourism opportunities, leading to the possibility that he'll be remembered by history as a great modernizer and live to see his more capable sons succeed him.
Unfortunately, an effective Cluebat(tm) for NK will likely need to reach terminal velocity from the bomb bay of a B-2.
#4
this all falls into the too-good-to-be-true category. But then again, so did Libya's cooperation. Who knows...maybe Kimmy's getting nervous about the hungry way his soldiers look at him.
I've wondered for some time whether there was any anti-North sentiment left in South Korea
South Korean conservatives have called for a tougher line on communist North Korea and closer ties with the United States at a pro-US rally that drew more than 20,000 marchers here. Christian church leaders and decorated war veterans led the rally in downtown Seoul on a national holiday to mark a 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule. Marchers burned a North Korean flag and said President Roh Moo-Hyun's policy of reconciliation with Pyongyang endangered national security. North Korean sympathisers had gained too much influence inside Roh's left-leaning administration, according to some activists. "We are very concerned about pro-North Korean leftists who have gained power in our society, threatening security," said Kim Chul-Ho, a 60 year-old ex-marine. Banners called for a harder line against the communist state and improved ties with the United States. plans to realign US forces are being taken seriously by some
"Block North Korea's nuclear weapons development through strong ties with the United States," read one banner as demonstrators chanted anti-Pyongyang slogans and waved South Korea's national flag. President Roh has vowed to pursue better ties with North Korea despite the 16-month-old nuclear crisis and Washington's tougher line against Pyongyang. In a speech marking the anniversary of the uprising, Roh urged an end to a rift between "left and right-wing" groups in South Korea. "There should be no more conflict between left and right-wing groups," Roh said He stressed South Korea should "embrace North Korea with a warm heart" despite its "eccentric" behavior.
Roh's government, elected on a wave on anti-US sentiment in late 2002, has opposed the imposition of sanctions or pressure on North Korea to force the bankrupt regime to scrap its nuclear weapons drive. Roh's support base is among a younger generation of South Koreans who no longer view the North as a serious security threat to the South and oppose the continued presence of 37,000 US troops in South Korea more than 50 years after the end of the Korean war. Conservative older generations see North Korea as a continued threat and the US troop presence as a deterrent. "Our main enemy is Kim Jong-Il's troops in North Korea," said another banner, referring to the North Korean leader's 1.1 million strong army, the fifth largest in the world.
Posted by: rkb ||
03/02/2004 9:20:10 AM ||
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#1
Bet we won't see this discussed in the major media.
#2
Man this is unusual-a pro US demo. I imagine the Kerry machine even as I type is saying that Bush must have sold California to get them to do it. Which the more I think about it is a great idea!
#3
dataman this is not unusual - many people in the south do support and appreciate what the us has done.
as for selling california as a great deal - maybe san fran area - but california is the 6th largest economy in the world and the us without it would be knocked down a few notches..
just where you from? i live in southern california and i love it...
no other place in the US can surf in the morning and go snow skiing in the afternoon (at least in winter)... would rather live here than in a place like Ohio, Wisconsian, Kansas...ext.I could go on but man these places are BORING.
love california or hate it - just go home.
Posted by: Dan ||
03/02/2004 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
would rather live here than in a place like Ohio, Wisconsian, Kansas...ext.I could go on but man these places are BORING.
Eh?
Ohio was the center of a couple of (for North America) major civilizations over the last 3,000 years. California STILL doesn't have any civilization worth speaking of.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
love california or hate it - just go home
I can't, all the g*ddamn californians came to Colorado. Tell you what, we'll throw the ass hats out and you can take 'em back home Dan. What you say?
Posted by: LC Matthew ||
03/02/2004 14:57 Comments ||
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#6
As this is spinning out, I think the best solution would be to treat Kim as a local problem. Drop the discussions back to 5 parties and let their group make an acceptable proposal to us that allows us to pull out of Korea completed on a timetable of about a decade. We are like a parent that has been tricked into participating in a Junior High study group. If they have any questions about what would be acceptable just leave them a note saying that we don't intend to give totalitarian regimes even one dollar of support and that they can relay all questions through the British Government.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 23:08 Comments ||
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An FBI informant told a Canadian court on Monday that Sikh separatist Ajaib Singh Bagri admitted to destroying Air India Flight 182, a 1985 attack that killed 329 people in history's deadliest bombing of a civilian airliner. The man, whose name is shielded by court order, said he met Bagri at a New Jersey gas station "a couple of weeks" after the bombing to express concern that New York-area Sikh independence groups were being blamed for the attack. "He said: 'Why they heck are they bothering you. We did this'," the man quoted Bagri, a prominent figure in the Babbar Khalsa militant group in Canada, as telling him in mixture of Punjabi and English. .... Bagri and co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik have pleaded not guilty to murder charges stemming from the June 1985 attack on Flight 182, which blew up off the Irish coast while on a flight from Canada to India via London. They are also charged with an attempt to destroy a second Air India flight at the same time. That bomb killed two airport workers in Tokyo. The bombings are alleged by police to be the work of Canadian-based Sikh separatists as revenge for the Indian Army's 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Punjab, the religion's holiest shrine. Bagri's attorneys have already dismissed the witness as unreliable because he agreed to come to Canada from the United States to testify only after Canadian authorities agreed to pay him $300,000. The witness admitted on Monday the FBI helped him enter and leave the United States even though it new he was an illegal immigrant. .....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 10:30:10 PM ||
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hat tip: Allah
The Democratic Party's presidential front-runner, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has pledged that if elected he will abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for three-and-one-half years of mistakes by the Bush administration. In a sweeping foreign-policy address to the Council on Foreign Relations in December, Kerry called the U.S. war on terror as conceived and led by President George W. Bush "the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history." Kerry's remarks were widely praised by journalists. The Associated Press headlined its report on his speech, "Kerry Vows to Repair Foreign Relations." The Knight Ridder news service noted that the new focus on foreign policy "plays to Kerry's strength." None of the major U.S. dailies found Kerry's unusually strident language at all inappropriate. "Kerry Vows to Change U.S. Foreign Policy; Senator Describes Steps He Would Take as President," the Washington Post headlined ponderously.
Presidential contenders have criticized sitting presidents in times of war before, but what's unique today is that "it has become the rule, not the exception," says Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the Heritage Foundation. "With a few notable exceptions, you have almost the entire Democratic Party hierarchy that opposes what Bush is doing in the most vitriolic and emotional terms." Heritage presidential historian Lee Edwards called it "not a foreign-policy analysis but a polemical speech, filled with inflammatory rhetoric that is disturbing and beyond the pale. What this suggests is that Mr. Kerry wants to take us back to President [Bill] Clinton and his U.N.-led multilateral policies." Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his "radically wrong" policy, and seek "cooperation and compromise" with friend and foe alike. Borrowing language normally reserved to characterize "rogue" states, Kerry said he would "go to the United Nations and travel to our traditional allies to affirm that the United States has rejoined the community of nations." I won't post my thoughts on this, mainly because they are not fit for public speech
Perhaps frustrated that his radical departure from the war on terror was not getting much attention in the trenches of Democratic Party politics, Kerry ordered his campaign to mobilize grass-roots supporters to spread the word. In one e-mail message, obtained by Insight and confirmed as authentic by the Kerry camp, the senator's advisers enlisted overseas Democrats to launch a letter-writing and op-ed campaign denouncing the Bush foreign-policy record. "It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States to restore our country's credibility in the eyes of the world," the message states. "America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others." The e-mail succeeded beyond the wildest dream of Kerry's handlers - at least, so they tell Insight. It was immediately picked up by the Mehr news agency in Tehran, and appeared the next day on the front page of a leading hard-line daily there. "I have no idea how they got hold of that letter, which was prepared for Democrats Abroad," Kerry's top foreign-policy aide, Rand Beers, tells Insight. uh huh
"I scratched my head when I saw that. The only way they could have gotten it was if someone in Iran was with Democrats Abroad." The hard-line, anti-American Tehran Times published the entire text of the seven-paragraph e-mail under a triumphant headline announcing that Kerry pledged to "repair damage if he wins election." By claiming that the Kerry campaign had sent the message directly to an Iranian news agency in Tehran, the paper indicated that the e-mail was a demonstration of Kerry's support for a murderous regime that even today tops the State Department's list of supporters of international terrorism. According to dissident Ayatollah Mehdi Haeri, who fled Iran for Germany after being held for four years in a regime prison, Iran's hard-line clerics "fear President Bush." In an interview with Insight, Haeri says that President Bush's messages of support to pro-democracy forces inside Iran and his insistence that the Iranian regime abandon its nuclear-weapons program "have given these people the shivers. They think that if Bush is re-elected, they'll be gone. That's why they want to see Kerry elected."
The latest Bush message, released on Feb. 24, commented on the widely boycotted Iranian parliamentary elections that took place the week before. "I am very disappointed in the recently disputed parliamentary elections in Iran," President Bush said. "The disqualification of some 2,400 candidates by the unelected Guardian Council deprived many Iranians of the opportunity to freely choose their representatives. I join many in Iran and around the world in condemning the Iranian regime's efforts to stifle freedom of speech, including the closing of two leading reformist newspapers in the run-up to the election. Such measures undermine the rule of law and are clear attempts to deny the Iranian people's desire to freely choose their leaders. The United States supports the Iranian people's aspiration to live in freedom, enjoy their God-given rights and determine their own destiny." The Kerry campaign released no statement on the widely discredited Iranian elections, reinforcing allegations from pro-democracy Iranian exiles in America that the junior senator from Massachusetts is working hand-in-glove with pro-regime advocates in the United States.
Kerry foreign-policy aide Beers tried to nuance notice - not correct, just 'nuance'
the impression that Kerry was willing to seek new ties with the Tehran regime and forgive the Islamic republic for 25 years of terror that began by taking U.S. diplomats hostage in Tehran in 1979 and continues to this day with Iran's overt support and harboring of top al-Qaeda operatives. Just the day before the e-mail message was sent to the Mehr news agency, Beers told a foreign-policy forum in Washington that Kerry "is not saying that he is looking for better relations with Iran. He is looking for a dialogue with Iran. There are some issues on which we really need to sit down with the Iranians." The word "dialogue" immediately gives comfort to hard-liners, says Ayatollah Haeri. While Beer's comments went unnoticed by the U.S. press, they were prominently featured by the official Islamic Republic News Agency in a Feb. 7 dispatch from Washington. In an interview with Insight, Beers went even further. "We are prepared to talk to the Iranian government" of hard-line, anti-American clerics, he insisted. "While we realize we have major differences, there are areas that could form the basis for cooperation, such as working together to stop drug production in Afghanistan." oh - wonderful idea!!! JUST the sort of thing they'd be pleased to work with us on ...
Beers has a special history in Washington. A longtime National Security Council aide who served President Clinton and was carried over by the Bush White House, he resigned as the war in Iraq began in March 2003. Just weeks later, he volunteered for the Kerry campaign. The Washington Post heralded him in a profile as "a lifelong bureaucrat" who was an "unlikely insurgent." Yet the Post acknowledged that he was a "registered Democrat" who by resigning at such a critical moment was "not just declaring that he's a Democrat. He's declaring that he's a Kerry Democrat, and the way he wants to make a difference in the world is to get his former boss [Bush] out of office." Talking to Insight, Beers compares Kerry's proposal to begin talks with Iran to the senator's earlier advocacy of renewing relations with Vietnam after the Vietnam War: "No expectations, eyes wide open."
With Iran, which is known to be harboring top al-Qaeda operatives, Beers says "there is no way to have a deal without having the hard-liners as part of the dialogue. We are prepared to talk to the hard-line element" as part of an overall political dialogue with the Iranian regime. The Kerry policy of seeking an accommodation with the regime is not new, says Patrick Clawson, the deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has been tracking Iran policy for two decades. "Kerry's approach is that of many in Europe who think you must entice rogue regimes. Enticement only works if it is followed up with the notion that there would be a penalty if they didn't behave. I see nothing of that in Sen. Kerry's statements."
For Aryo Pirouznia, who chairs the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, Kerry's offer to negotiate with hard-liners in the regime smacks of lunacy. "America is incredibly popular with the Iranian masses, so this is a grave mistake for a short-term benefit," Pirouznia says. "To the regime, this sends a message that America is willing to make a deal despite the blood of Americans who were murdered in Dhahran [Saudi Arabia] and are being killed today in Iraq by so-called foreign elements. And to Iranians, it shows that the old establishment may be back in power, a return to the Carter era." Pirouznia's Texas-based support group, which worked closely with protesting students during the July 1999 uprising in Tehran, sent an open letter to Kerry on Feb. 19 noting that "millions of dollars" had been raised for the Democratic Party by Iranian-American political-action committees and fund-raisers with ties to the Tehran regime. "By sending such a message directly to the organs and the megaphones of the dictatorial Islamic regime, you have given them credibility, comfort and embraced this odious theocracy," Pirouznia says. "You have encouraged and emboldened a tyrannical regime to use this as propaganda and declare 'open season' on the freedom fighters in Iran." Read the companion article: John Kerry's Iranian-American Fund-Raisers for details of the pro-mullah agenda being pushed by major contributors to Kerry's campaign, some of whom appear to have bent the rules about non-citizens contributing ...
Posted by: rkb ||
03/02/2004 9:32:04 AM ||
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John Kerry - Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his "radically wrong" policy, and seek "cooperation and compromise" with friend and foe alike. Borrowing language normally reserved to characterize "rogue" states, Kerry said he would "go to the United Nations and travel to our traditional allies to affirm that the United States has rejoined the community of nations."
George McGovern - "I would crawl on my hands and knees to Hanoi."
The more things change.....
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/02/2004 10:25 Comments ||
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#2
The only thing I can say is, "where is my vomit bucket"
How can people like Kerry look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, without feeling violently sick?
#3
"I would crawl on my hands and knees to Hanoi."
And not surprisingly, McGovern was roundly stomped as a result. If someone wants to fellate foreign leaders that's their business, but I'll be damned if a U.S. president is going to do it.
#5
Better get out the vote boys. This is more than a Presidential Election. John Fonda Kerry's views need to be made known to the rest of the electorate which usually sits on its hands and votes blindly. This man CANNOT become our Commander in Chief. CANNOT.
#6
Does anyone else find it sad that if we Rantburgers pass the hat, pay for Kerry/Fonda signs and congregate in front of the Dem convention that the delegates might possibly cheer us?
#7
Why does this not surprise me? Why would it surprise any Rantburger? We saw after Kerry left the Navy that he was a treasonous bastard with no morals. It seems the leopard doesn't even have any intentions of changing his spots. John Kerry would be a good candidate for forced citizenship change - he truly belongs in France.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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#8
And not surprisingly, McGovern was roundly stomped as a result. As much as things change...
I think the biggest threat we face is the folks on the "right" who get out and complain that Bush is not conservative ENOUGH. Don't let them get away with it.
Kerry supporters are religious fanatics. Kerry could chop up a baby, fry it and eat it on public television and they would still vote for him. The real danger lies in the Right stabbing itself in the back, while the Dems hold up the mirror to make sure we can place the knife in just the right spot.
Posted by: B ||
03/02/2004 16:31 Comments ||
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#9
Don't blame me, I'm from Massa- ...er... never mind. I did my bit to try and keep this [insert derisive term here] from getting back in the Senate, but his only opponents were a Green and a Libertarian. I voted L just to protest.
Although this AP report doesn't mention it, the bank's parent company is owned by the Allbritton family, which owns Allbritton Communications, which owns Channel 7/WJLA-TV (the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC.)
The D.C.-based parent company of Riggs National Bank has been subpoenaed by lawyers representing the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. According to The Wall Street Journal, the lawyers are seeking information about how the company handled the Embassy of Saudi Arabia's bank accounts. My guess is, obsequiously.
The attorneys say they want to know whether Riggs may have helped facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars in funds to the hijackers - or to so-called charities that funnel funds to al-Qaida. If it did, the bank could face legal action by the victims seeking damages. Both Riggs and the Saudi Embassy have previously denied aiding the terrorists - but bank officials acknowledge there has been lax oversight of the Saudi accounts. It all depends on your definition of lax. And oversight. Here's hoping the legal beagles find some red meat...
#1
I watched that channel the other day. It was one of those fakey town meeting things where the anchor would manage to turn any/every question/comment into futher "proof" that "the people"(TM) were concerned that bush lied, people died and we need answers! There was no pretense - just naked propaganda laid bare. Sooo...I'm guessing they'll find some meat on this bone.
Posted by: B ||
03/02/2004 16:08 Comments ||
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About 18,000 National Guard soldiers from four major units have gone on alert for likely deployment to Iraq late this year or in early 2005, the Pentagon said Monday. The announcement underscores the deepening involvement of Guard and Reserve forces in U.S.-led efforts to quell the insurgency in Iraq and stabilize the country. So far 45 Guard and Reserve members have been killed in action in Iraq and 42 more have died of nonhostile causes. The Guard units alerted are the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters from the New York National Guard, the 256th Infantry Brigade from Louisiana, the 116th Cavalry Brigade from Idaho and Oregon, and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment from Tennessee. They will be mobilized over the next several months to conduct training before their new assignment, the Pentagon said. The 42nd Infantry Division from New York will be the first National Guard division headquarters to serve in Iraq; other Guard division headquarters have served in the Balkans in recent years.
Be safe and come home to us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 00:02 ||
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hmmm...Late this year or early next. So that leaves an excess of troops in Iraq at the end of the year, yes? Unless the Guard units are going to take the garrison while other units go Elsewhere.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
03/02/2004 1:43 Comments ||
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Don't get too excited. My impression is that these units are leaving most of their heavy equipment behind and will only suitable for constabulary work.
#3
The active duty boys are taking advantage of the reserves. It is easier for the Army's leaders to throw NG and reserve units into the fray rather than to take the stand that we need to draw down our forces in Iraq and Bosnia & reconstitute our forces to get ready for the next war.
The reserves (Army, Marine...) make up better than 50% of the current mix of forces in the 2004 rotation.
#4
Nope. Read the article - the NG will be called up for combat support and supply support roles.
This isn't active duty guys taking advantage of NG. It's the direct result of the post-Vietnam decision to push critical functions **to the reserves and NG only** precisely to make it hard to deploy active duty troops without a political mandate.
Trust me, the active duty guys I work with dearly would like not to have to rely on this ...
#7
I read the article - the NG units are infanry and armored cav. I agree on the base premise that CS and CSS units are in the reserves to make it hard to deploy troops (active or reserve) without a political mandate, but, most of the troops in the next two rotations are reserves.
You are missing the point - the active duty leadership is taking the easy way out. It is easier for them to throw NG/Reserve units at the problem than to take a stand.
To the proud aunt - God bless you - the 278th is an excellent unit.
#8
Okay, JP - just what stand do you think the active duty leadership should be making?? You clearly have an agenda in mind that you're not spelling out.
I don't believe that the Army's current leadership has clearly communicated to our political bosses what an extended deployment will do to our readiness (active and reserve). Shinseki tried to spell it out and got relieved early.
The AC types view the reserves as an expendable resource. A resource they are not responsible for, easy to expend.
We can not afford to exhaust our entire force (Army) in Iraq. We have to hold something back. No end is in sight for this deployment as well as Bosnia. The Afghanistan rotations have to be maintained.
#10
I agree with you about the need to not exhaust our entire force in Iraq. but given the need for stability and support operations there for some time to come, I'd rather see NG / Reservists there than active duty units, for a variety of reasons.
Pakistan criticised Israel's decision to approve the sale of three Phalcon airborne early warning radar systems to India, saying it would accentuate the strategic imbalance in South Asia. "The sales of sophisticated weapons to India will accentuate strategic and conventional imbalance in South Asia," foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told the media. "How are us muslims supposed to win if they keep buying weapons from the Jews?"
Israel's security cabinet on Sunday approved the 1.1 billion dollar deal which was lined up during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to India in September. "Such transactions undermine the spirit of peace and stability being pushed by Pakistan, India and the international community in the region," Khan said. Time for another Pakistani missile test.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 8:41:02 AM ||
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#1
Time for another Pakistani missile test.
Or at least a spectacular explosion followed by a lot of "Um, we meant for it to do that..."
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/02/2004 10:47 Comments ||
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I would support an extensive Pakistani test program.
In the NWFP.
Bang. And then there were nine.....
Posted by: john ||
03/02/2004 13:02 Comments ||
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Pakistan criticised Israel’s decision to approve the sale of three Phalcon airborne early warning radar systems to India, saying it would accentuate the strategic imbalance in South Asia.
Well, shit happens when one decides to pursue a nuclear weapons program, not to mention spreading the knowledge around.
Tough shit Pakis, reap the rewards of your actions.
A secret White Paper on Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) prepared by the Indian Bhartiya Janata Party government some time ago may have leaked to a think tank in India that has just published a new book on "The costs of the Indo-Pak conflict", say analysts. India's deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani, had told the Indian parliament that the white paper was being prepared, but he stopped talking about it when he realised that publishing it might compromise the Indian intelligence agencies' "hard work" in keeping tabs on alleged ISI agents and activities in the country. Now a Mumbai-based think tank has come out with a book that may have taken information about the ISI's alleged activities from the secret paper.
The book details "ISI activities in India carried out with the help of madrassas" but it doesn't indicate the source of its information. It tries to paint the madrassas in a bad light, which is what the BJP and its front organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal have been doing for years. The book published by the Mumbai-based 'Strategic Foresight Group of the International Center for Peace Initiatives' claims that "India identified enhanced ISI activities in nine states and an active network of ISI-sponsored illegal madrassas throughout the country" and that the ISI had 60 centres in India employing as many as 10,000 spies. The states identified are: Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Jharkhand.
The book, described as a study report, claims that Kerala has the highest number of nearly 10,000 madrassas, followed by 6000 in Madhya Pradesh. The states of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat and Rajasthan have around 2,000 madrassas each, close to 1,000 each in Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and on the Indo-Bangladeshi border while the lowest number, 122, is in Jammu and Kashmir. It said the ISI spends Rs 600 million each year on funding these madrassas in India, noting that "India's fragile communal fabric is quickly becoming the primary target of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, in addition to its Jihad-e-Kashmir operation and Lashkar-e-Taiba launched Jihad-e-Hind operation in early 2003 signifying the shift of LT focus from Kashmir alone to the rest of India." The book quotes Pakistani scholars as saying that if the ISI manages to persuade even one per cent of the Muslim population (1.5 million) to take up arms, 1.5 million people would create unprecedented internal turmoil in India.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/02/2004 12:37:07 AM ||
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It tries to paint the madrassas in a bad light
A futile goal.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 6:48 Comments ||
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A futile goal.
If they can't be painted in that manner, then stomp on them, one by one. Either deal with them now, or deal with them later, when there's more to have to contend with.
EFL
There are dramatic signs of shifting strategies in the covert war in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), as Pakistan reorients its position to take advantage of the rising sentiment in favour of peace, even as it seeks to sustain terrorism on Indian soil. The Muttahida Jehad Council (MJC), which was shifted from Islamabad to Muzzafarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in order to assert the pretence of its 'autonomy', has been reorganized; component terrorist groups have been instructed by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to drop the expressions jehad, lashkar, jaish or mujahiddeen in their names in order to project a 'secular political' rather than Islamist image. As a result, three new 'alliances' have emerged: the Kashmir Resistance Forum (KRF); the Kashmir Freedom Forum (KFF); and the Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM). Simultaneously, cries of 'human rights violations' by the Indian security forces, and orchestrated protests against these, are sweeping across Kashmir, even as terrorist groups escalate violence. The most significant of recent terrorist operations was, of course, the grenade attack on Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's political rally at Beerwah in Budgam district on February 27, 2004.
Nevertheless, the pressure on terrorist formations in the State is enormous, and rising. Overt support from Pakistan - including artillery cover that was routinely provided to infiltrating groups - has diminished, as the Pervez Musharraf regime comes under mounting international - particularly US - pressure for a wide range of transgressions, including its support to international terrorism and Pakistan's role in the proliferation of nuclear technologies to rogue states, including Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Counter-terrorist operations by Indian security forces have also been enormously successful over the past months, and, apart from a continuous stream of arrests and killings of terrorist cadres, most major formations operating in J&K have lost frontline leaders over the past months. Since May last year, after Prime Minister Vajpayee's 'offer of friendship' to Pakistan in April 2003, at least 27 frontline terrorist leaders in J&K have been killed, including, in the current year itself, Abdul Majid Wani, 'divisional commander' of the HM (February 24, 2004); Ishfaq Ahmad Rehmani, 'district commander' of the Al Badr Mujahideeen (February 21, 2004); Ehsaan Elahi, 'district commander' of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT, February 20, 2004); Rafeeq Ahmed Dar 'chief commander operations', Al Omar Mujahideeen (February 6, 2004); Ghulam Rasool Dar, 'chief commander operations', HM (January 16, 2004); Abbas Malik, 'district commander', Doda, HM (January 15, 2004); and Javed Ahmad, 'operational commander', LeT (January 13, 2004).
Wonder if the Paks are fingering them? Wouldn't surprise me, though it probably surprises them to realize they're expendable.
The steady losses inflicted on the terrorist leadership have enormously affected operational capacities, and also brought pressure on 'overground' organisations, including factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) as well as a number of 'human rights' fronts to orchestrate systematic political campaigns, agitations, and judicial actions to blunt security force operations. This has been a consistent strategy of terrorist groups across India - and not only in J&K - particularly in periods of terrorist reverses and of 'political negotiations' for the 'settlement' of conflicts. The modus operandi is particularly visible in what are being referred to as the 'Bandipore atrocities' involving two separate incidents in which six civilians were killed.
These are familiar stories. In the end 1980s and early 1990s, battered by sustained counter-terrorism operations, and with increasing political interference as a result of a number of terrorist sympathisers and former terrorists finding a place in the country's democratic processes due to the Centre's efforts to find a 'political solution' to the Khalistani terrorist movement in the Punjab, precisely the same pattern had been massively employed. Any assessment of current trends in the State, including the shifting pronouncement of the Hurriyat factions, must factor in the reality that these protests and agitations are part of a coordinated campaign to obstruct security forces from carrying out legitimate counter-terrorism operations, and to further the terrorist agenda by means that exploit the institutions and freedoms of democracy. Any aberrations and highhandedness by security forces, must not, of course, go unpunished. However, while allegations of human rights abuses must be taken seriously and investigated at the highest level, there is urgent need to understand, equally, the dynamic in which 'human rights' claims become an integral element of the negotiating strategy of the front organisations of terrorist groups and sympathetic political formations, as well as of the state sponsors of such terrorist groups and front organisations.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/02/2004 12:06:40 AM ||
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This needs some paragraph breaks.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 6:51 Comments ||
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Is that better?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 9:24 Comments ||
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Mehr News Agency — An Iraqi analyst revealed on Saturday that a Jew, originally Iraqi, who acts as an advisor to the U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, has been missioned to draft the Iraqi constitution. Walid al-Zobeidi told the BBC Arabic service that the draft constitution will be implemented in July. Bremer has earlier threatened to veto any Iraqi constitution which would consider Islam as the main backbone of the constitution. The Iraqi analyst has refused to disclose the name of the Jew.
Ummm... Yes. That's what the ayatollahs look like with the mask off...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 22:39 ||
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The two main sources for the Iraqi constitution will be the Koran and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 22:49 Comments ||
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Kurds reportedly broke into and vandalized the headquarters of the Iraqi Turkoman Front in Kirkuk on 29 February, Voice of the Mujahedin radio reported on 1 March. The vandals apparently destroyed computers, furniture, and 20 vehicles parked on the grounds. The vehicles belonged to supporters of the Turkoman Front. Party official Subhi Sabir said the group that attacked the headquarters was carrying Kurdish flags and pictures of Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani. "We do not know whether they carried out this act upon directives from these two people, or [if] it was a spontaneous act."
Doesn't make much sense to me. Why carry flags and posters when you're trashing your rivals? A black bag job would make more sense.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 10:10:32 PM ||
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Tried, but couldn't figure out what to edit out of this! With folks returning home, including our soldiers, it will be interesting to start reading their accounts about what has and has not happened. Case Not Closed: Iraq's WMD Stockpiles
In the summer of 2003, I served as Chief of Staff in the Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), an organization formerly called the Ministry of Atomic Energy. The Ministry had a small staff of Americans and Iraqis, and was one of several ministries of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad. One of our key tasks was to transition several thousand Iraqi scientists and engineers from military and state-owned enterprises to private enterprises involved in more peaceful endeavors. Working there, I enjoyed a unique vantage point on the activities of the Iraqi Survey Group (ISG), the inspection agency headed by Dr. David Kay, charged with finding WMD. Dr. Kay's recent report and his testimony before Congress have helped fuel flames of criticism of the Bush Administration, and of 12 years of prewar intelligence on Iraq.
We at the MOST were a vital link in the WMD reporting chain, and in coordinating interviews by the ISG with the scientists of the ministry. In addition, we had resident scientific and technical expertise, and some of our people also had extensive experience working with intelligence organizations in the conduct of tactical ground and maritime reconnaissance operations. Based on this background, I want to report to my fellow Americans on some of the problems and missed opportunities I observed in the work of the ISG. In doing so, I speak only for myself, not for my colleagues, or for any organ of the CPA, or for any agency of the United States Government.
The ISG's search for significant stockpiles of WMD has so far come up empty. It may be that there are no large stockpiles, as Dr. Kay has stated. But from my perspective in the MOST, this lack of a positive finding may also be the result of unfocused and uncoordinated ISG search operations. It is entirely possible that the much sought-after WMD stockpiles may be literally right under the feet of coalition forces, and until a properly coordinated search effort is completed, no firm conclusions about their presence or absence can be reached. The case remains open.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Great article. No doubt we'll be hearing many more stories like this....just not in the usual biased media channels.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/02/2004 19:43 Comments ||
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#2
HA! I told you so!!
the much sought-after WMD stockpiles may be literally right under the feet of coalition forces
Uh..."literally" being the operative word here. Please tell me that I am not the ONLY person on rantburg who can "read" this (beside the author).
It may be that there are no large stockpiles, as Dr. Kay has stated." But from my perspective....this lack of a positive finding may also be the result of unfocused and uncoordinated ISG search operations."
Now here is a little sentence that those of you with better than 20/20 vision can see the real meaning of, "My experience, and the character of day to day life in Iraq, indicate just the opposite"
Hello!!! Is the whole *&*(&ng world blind???
Why is this little gem just sitting there all alone??? Come on, man...."Dude"...did you think we would miss it buried among the word heap??? Uh...wrong!!! And I'm quite sure I"m not alone here. For those of us who can see, it's like a beacon...a *&(^*g lighthouse!!
Damn...this article is good.
For those of you who can't read it properly..this article says, "there are no stockpiles of WMD's. However, the WMD's are buried in the gardens of the scientists or other very clever spots. David Kay and others apparently are not clever enough, (or perhaps they are blinded by the photos of them having sex with minors )to see the very obvious fact that Sadaam did have WMD's.
Somebody pay me to do this. I work cheap!! $0/per hour.
Posted by: B ||
03/02/2004 20:25 Comments ||
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#3
Interesting point there B. We know that Iraqis like to bury weapons and ordnance in their gardens.
We still haven't completed the search. There's still a lot more work to be done before the ISG will be able to say they've turned over all the rocks and looked in all the crannies and nooks in Iraq.
Now, either the administration is saying "hit us again, please", or there's more to the story than we know.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2004 21:30 Comments ||
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#5
I don't know whether the WMD's are there or not there, but I understand the difficulty in trying to come up with a rational way to search through an irrational society.
I guess the major problem that I have with Kay's search is that scientists will be involved in programs and development - and Kay found programs. One a product has been developed, manufacturing of any substance is usually the realm of engineers not scientists. As the author pointed out, though, you still have to interview the scientists regardless.
I think we truly have become a society of morons. Evidently, 50% of Americans believe that a country with knowledge and programs should be left alone. People willing to think can't help but see that enrichment via centrifuge and proliferation Khan-style were watershed changes to the status quo of an order of magnitude similar in level to 9-11.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 22:42 Comments ||
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University of Miami professor and water resources engineer Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm offered a similar assessment of the extent of the ecological and social damage. "Endangered species of birds are threatened by the marshland loss along major flyways. Salt water has also intruded into waterways, adversely affecting local freshwater commercial fisheries. The Ma'dan culture has essentially been destroyed in violation of its members' human rights," he said. He added that the wetlands "are also nursery grounds for shrimp migrating up from the Arabian Gulf, which are of commercial importance to Gulf states such as Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."
Gordon West and John Wilson of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said, however, that some of the damage was reversible. In joint written testimony, West and Wilson submitted the preliminary findings of studies executed by USAID in Iraq during the summer of 2003. Addressing the committee, Wilson noted, "There has been recent reflooding throughout the marshlands. This reflooding is due to a combination of heavier than normal snowfalls in the north and the deliberate destruction of structures by people in the area, the opening of gates by the Ministry of Water Resources and the release of water by Iran from the east." He added, "The recent imagery from NASA shows that what was once seven percent of the remaining wetlands is now about 30 to 40 percent."
In their joint written testimony, West and Wilson said that researchers had taken water and soil samples from existing and recently reflooded marsh areas. "The samples are being analyzed for a full range of parameters, including salinity, toxicity, pesticides, heavy metals, and water vector diseases. The team also did immediate data analyses on salinity, conductivity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, and pH," they wrote. They went on to note, "An interesting finding was that salinity was far lower than had been anticipated. The salinity of most of the water was 1.0 part per thousand (ppt) or less, rather than the 3.0-5.0 ppt expected." They also observed, "The team found several areas of healthy regrowth of reeds and other freshwater vegetation and wildlife." They said, "These regions may be a seed source and faunal population base for restoring the drained marshes."
#1
This is great news, not just for the Marsh Arabs but for the ecology of the whole region. Of course, America will get no praise for making this possible.
You're welcome anyway.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/02/2004 18:41 Comments ||
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The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) today announced the integration of 13 new telephone switches and an International Satellite Gateway with the 14 existing switches of the Iraqi Telephone and Postal Company (ITPC) in Baghdad. The new switches and international gateway were installed by USAID partner Bechtel. Before the conflict, 1.1 million Iraqis, half of which were in Baghdad, subscribed to the ITPC for landline telephone service. A large percentage of the capital city's switching centers were damaged during the conflict and service disrupted. In Baghdad, 240,000 out of 540,000 telephone lines were out of service at 12 separate exchange sites.
As part of the CPA's overall Reconstruction Program, USAID and its implementing partner, Bechtel, restored the sites, which allow the ITPC to bring all telephone lines back into operation. Containerized, modern telephone switches were installed and are connected to and being monitored and controlled from the new Network Operations Center at Al Mamoun, the largest site in the country. The ITPC staff is connecting network wiring and programming subscriber numbers to allow final activation of the lines. Over 100,000 individual subscriber lines have now been connected. All fully operational telephones nationwide can access the switch at Al Mamoun and the International Satellite Gateway. Once connected to the gateway, outbound international calls can be made using a prepaid phone card. Active subscribers are now receiving inbound international calls. USAID and Bechtel collaborated closely with the ITPC on this project. ITPC crews performed much of the work including clearing the rubble and leveling the sites, digging new cable ducts, locating intact cable and splicing cables and wiring of the main distribution frames of the switches. In addition to the exchange switches, USAID partner Bechtel is restoring portions of the main 2,000 kilometer north-south fiber optic backbone, connecting Dahuk in the far north to Umm Qasr in the extreme south. Connectivity between all cities north and south of Baghdad will deliver the voice and data communications Iraq needs both for its immediate requirements and for future economic development.
"In yet another example of the unfairness meted out by the Halliburton influenced CPA, residents of Occupied Iraq are forced to use modems, while the US population basks unfairly in the use of Broadband internet access methods.
The Bush Administration and its oil industry cronies have not put forth a plan to bring the basic human right of high speed internet access to the opressed people of Iraq. "
Posted by: frank martin ||
03/02/2004 15:09 Comments ||
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This a website about the war and related grand strategic issues, IIUC (Fred has said this repeatedly) Some come here to analyze, speculate, see news that we'd have a hard time finding in one place. Others come here to cheer successes for the US and its allies - to bemoan successes for the other side - to rant about the other side, etc.
There are lots of places to go where the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc is ONLY of interest in so far as it helps/hurts Dubya/Kerry/whomever. I find comment like this thoroughly boring and predictible. On a leftie site some idiot will see failure in Iraq as a "boost" for Kerry. On a rightie site some idiot will see good news from Iraq as a boost for "bush". I might as well comment on a post like this what impact it will have on my stock portfolio - ya think Bechtel is underpriced, anyone?
Look, theres a homefront section, a fifth column section, short attention span section. I havent "peshawared" anything there in a long time and i wont. For the most part i simply try to avoid those sections.
We've got a Presidential election year now, the first since 9/11. Now if y'all want to weigh every bit of news for what it does to one political campaign or another, feel free. But all of us will lose a valuable resource if we do.
#8
Liberalhawk, just one little tiny addendum, Bechtel is a private corp, no shares sold period, ownership of the company stays in family. I know because my father worked for them, the best they do is set up mutual funds through an agency like Fremont Funds group. Anyway its a nitpick but I thought it was kinda important to point that out anyway ;)
#9
But LH, how do you separate the subjects? The election has a direct bearing on how, if at all, the WOT will be conducted.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/02/2004 18:16 Comments ||
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#10
Peshawar You meannie this is my last post until the Rapture.
Posted by: Napoleon VII ||
03/02/2004 18:37 Comments ||
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#11
I'm with LH on this. I see increasing amounts of stuff on RB that I want to 'Peshawar'.
Perhaps Fred should introduce a comment Peshawared feature.
BTW if some of you were wondering. 'Peshawar' is a reference to 'What has this got to do with the price of Kalashnikovs in Peshawar?', i.e. what is its relevance.
#12
LH, spirits are running high right now with the election coming up. I've gathered (I'm such a sleuth :-) that a fair percentage of regulars here don't exactly admire the Democrats and Mr. Kerry, and will prolly say so when given a chance. Rather unavoidable in a spirited democracy.
My personal advice would be grin and bear it, or not. The good material is still going to be here.
I personally will avoid taking the more gratuitous shots at Mr. Kerry. But I may not be able to avoid taking every shot at him :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 19:47 Comments ||
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#13
killjoy
story could be wonderful news. except now attack coordination will be better. maybe chainey is listening in. mixed bag. ramalamadingdong.
#14
It will be interesting to see whether insurgents target the phone system or use the system to surf for pictures of naughty women displaying far too much ankle.
Note - I am impressed with what I am getting for my tax dollars. It would have been easy to burn through the supplemental just buying bullets and burning up gas flying around F-15's. Some flights are necessary but F-15's won't help much against an urban based insurgency.
With the upgrades to water treatment, addition of power production capacity and general repair of the poorly maintained oil industry systems, the Iraqis should have a decent infrastructure to build a prosperous country out of. Hopefully the Iraqis don't plan to take a seat between the Haitians and Palestinians on the political short bus.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 22:28 Comments ||
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As many as 100 people have been killed in blasts targeting Iraqi Shias celebrating a holy day in Karbala and Baghdad. Members of the Shia and international communities expressed shock and outrage - and some focused blame.
How is it possible that any man - let alone a Muslim man - does this on the day of al-Hussein? Today war has been launched on Islam. Thaer al-Shimri
Shia al-Dawa party
This criminal act, on the holy day that marks the martyrdom of Hussein, shows that the terrorists respect no boundaries, that they will kill visitors, pilgrims from Iraq and innocents of all kinds. Hamid al-Bayati Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
This blatant crime against innocent people leaves one amazed and astounded as to how anyone can - in a spiritual atmosphere and at holy sites - commit this terrorist deed, massacring innocent and defenceless people who are mourning because of their love for their sanctities. Without a doubt the people who have committed these crimes know nothing about humanity and, unfortunately, the continued presence of occupying forces has been unable to provide security for the Iraqi people, and they must accept their responsibility in this respect. Hamid Reza Asefi
Spokesman for Iranian Foreign Ministry
It is natural that the whole finger of accusation will be pointed at the occupiers, because the responsibility for security in Iraq currently lies with the occupiers, who have been occupying Iraq for nearly a year. Hence, we have to say that Iraqis are in the right in the current circumstances when they consider the Americans responsible for these killings and this shedding of blood.
Mr Qannadbashi
Iranian state radio commentator
Those initiating these attacks are cowards and terrorists.
US military statement
I came here [Karbala], I saw the explosions and I saw the victims. The criminals are trying to strike discord in Iraq, but we are going to fight them until the very last drop of our blood. Mohammed Bahrul al-Ulum
Current president of the Iraqi Governing Council
The main aim is to create problems between the Sunni and Shia people. We have to be very careful. Mahmud Othman
Kurdish member of the Iraqi Governing Council
This is a message from [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi to the Iraqi people and we received the message. It is written in blood now. We will not respond in a sectarian way. Mowaffaq al-Rubaie
Shia member of the Iraqi Governing Council
These cowardly attacks by desperate terrorists will not succeed in stopping the people of Iraq along the road to democracy, notably after the signing of the temporary constitution. The Iraqi people will overcome this test. Intifadh Kanbar
Spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC)
These are barbarous acts that we condemn in the strongest terms. Joschka Fischer
German Foreign Minister
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
03/02/2004 11:55:28 AM ||
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#1
You know, in a crazy kind of way, one of the most dependable allies we have in the war against al-Queda is... al-Queda.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
03/02/2004 12:35 Comments ||
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#2
Let's see...The 3 answers to any Arab problem????????
1)It's the Joooooooo's fault.
2)It's the Americans' fault.
3)see 1 and 2
February has ended, and evil Amerikan forces lost 23 soldiers in Iraq. To date, MiniTruth has employed appropriate full media blackout on this development. (Facts posted at Lunaville.)
We note with satisfaction coverage given to the high casualties in November, such as this from WaPo. That story dated Nov. 29; no need to wait for good news.
23 losses is the lowest casualty figure since we went into Iraq. Lefty JSN has already been there to comment:
Yeah, Iraq is just freaking wonderful!
Only about 100 people were blown up today.
Only 1 soldier though, so I guess that is progress.
If 90% of Iraqis have to die to make sure the rest are free, patriotic Americans like you folks will be there, in thousands of dollars of protective gear, slaughtering them.
I don't think coherence is JSN's strong suit.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 11:33 ||
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A report from U.N. weapons inspectors to be released today says they now believe there were no weapons of mass destruction of any significance in Iraq after 1994, according to two U.N. diplomats who have seen the document. The historical review of inspections in Iraq is the first outside study to confirm the recent conclusion by David Kay, the former U.S. chief inspector, that Iraq had no banned weapons before last year's U.S-led invasion. It also goes further than prewar U.N. reports, which said no weapons had been found but noted that Iraq had not fully accounted for weapons it was known to have had at the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Why not?, Saddam could have saved himself a bunch of trouble.
The report, to be outlined to the U.N. Security Council as early as Friday, is based on information gathered over more than seven years of U.N. inspections in Iraq before the 2003 war, plus postwar findings discussed publicly by Kay. Kay reported in October that his team found "dozens of WMD-related program activities" that Iraq was required to reveal to U.N. inspectors but did not. However, he said he found no actual WMDs. The study, a quarterly report on Iraq from U.N. inspectors, notes that the U.S. teams' inability to find any weapons after the war mirrors the experience of U.N. inspectors who searched there from November 2002 until March 2003. The results may have been the same, but the circumstances surely were not, I doubt that the US teams were wined and dined by the Iraqi minders.
Many Bush administration officials were harshly critical of the U.N. inspection efforts in the months before the war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in August 2002 that inspections "will be a sham." What do you expect when you've been the hotbed of Anti-Americanism for 5 decades?
The Bush administration also pointedly declined U.N. offers to help in the postwar weapons hunt, preferring instead to use U.S. inspectors and specialists from other coalition countries such as Britain and Australia. I'm sure it was viewed that the UN teams were abject failures, so why bother bringing them back?
But U.N. reports submitted to the Security Council before the war by Hans Blix, former chief U.N. arms inspector, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, have been largely validated by U.S. weapons teams. The common findings:
Iraq's nuclear weapons program was dormant.
No evidence was found to suggest Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons. U.N. officials believe the weapons were destroyed by U.N. inspectors or Iraqi officials in the years after the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraq was attempting to develop missiles capable of exceeding a U.N.-mandated limit of 93 miles.
Demetrius Perricos, the acting executive chairman of the U.N. inspection teams, said in an interview that the failure to find banned weapons in Iraq since the war undercuts administration criticism of the U.N.'s search before the war. There is no substitute for a good bout of UN bashing, if it wasn't critisism of the search, perhaps we could have moved on to the oil for palaces program, or homicidal dictators on the human rights commission, or the slaughter in Rwanda......
"You cannot say that only the Americans or the British or the Australians currently inspecting in Iraq are the clever inspectors — and the Americans and the British and the Australians that we had were not," he said. Who? pedo Scott Ritter?, there's a credible guy.
Posted by: JerseyMike ||
03/02/2004 7:33:11 AM ||
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#1
I don't know why they would release a conclusive study; the UN normally likes to keep things grey in case the situation changes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 8:23 Comments ||
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#2
Isn't this like betting on the game after it is over?
#3
CF, I think its more like betting on the game in the 4th quarter, loudly, against your boss, while his team is losing.
As a US taxpayer, I have little interest in footing the bill for a quarter of this clown's salary. I respect his right to speak. I work hard enough for my paycheck that I don't feel the need to sponsor his undiplomatic grandstanding.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 9:08 Comments ||
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#4
Ignore it. These little after-the-fact, process-based criticisims are meaningless.
#6
CF, as SH points out, the game is not over. The WMD will turn up in Syria in the Spring (in the custody of US Special Forces.
SH, I would go for a reduction in our dues payments until such time as the UN: (i) accounts for what happened to the Iraq oil-for-food program money, (ii) performs an audit on international aid to the Palestinian Authority, (iii) establishes an office to promote democracy and free markets, (iv) closes the 50-year old Palestinian refugee camps, and (v) adds Japan and India to the Security Council. With the money we save, we should endow a new organization consisting solely of countries with democratically elected governments that espouse free and open markets. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to that group.
Smokeysinse, No need to kick the UN out of NYC. They fill the posh hotel rooms and the swank restaurants (and thus NYC's tax coffers).
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/02/2004 11:24 Comments ||
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#7
This report is a baldfaced admission that Hans Blix was doing absolutely nothing but run up an expense account in Iraq.
#8
CF,this is about rewriting history. Down the road, the UN official position will be: "If George Bush had been a little less cowboy more paitient, we would have found out Saddam had no WMDs"
Surprised the Kerry & the DNC has not picked up this talking point.
Posted by: john ||
03/02/2004 13:16 Comments ||
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This is a little interactive Flash bit on Iraq's Tribes. Though it's fairly simple regards tribalism and customs, it does have one very interesting part: Influential Tribes - by geographical area. For those that really want to "know" Iraq, it will be a useful primer.
Posted by: .com ||
03/02/2004 4:36:11 AM ||
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Laura Bush is pushing a $100 million children's medical center she hopes will be built in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Congress approved $50 million for the project in November as part of $87.5 billion for U.S. military operations and aid in Iraq, although some lawmakers, including Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee, have questioned whether the money would be better spent on basic public health measures instead of a modern facility.
I think Leahy enjoys being a killjoy.
The project, in its initial phases, eventually is to be a public-private partnership between U.S. Agency for International Development and Project HOPE, a private organization that has helped establish similar facilities in Poland and China, said Mrs. Bush's spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The Coalition Provisional Authority has informed Congress that it is ready to do the project, but is waiting for the lawmakers to respond with guidelines on how the money could be used. The $87.5 billion approved by Congress includes $18.6 billion for reconstruction. Of this amount, Congress approved $493 million for improving hospitals and clinics across Iraq, including $50 million for the pediatric facility in Basra.
It's a good idea. Iraq is going to be a first-and-a-half world country in the next decade and they'll need this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 02:41 ||
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#1
If you are really interested in saving kids lives, then spend the money on immunizations, clean water and education on hygiene.
#2
When are we gonna hear the crowd that tried for years to get the UN sanctions lifted going after Leahy for denying Iraqis medical care?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2004 8:13 Comments ||
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#3
We're already doing that, Phil_b. This has a lot of good points: Builds pride, establishes a place to put the really intelligent Iraqui medical people, spreads the wealth a bit by putting it in Basara instead of Baghdad, Injects some modernism in the area, and is obviously the seed for the Iraqi version of the CDC and Public Health ministry. The woman's clearly not a moron, and wouldn't marry one...
#5
My daughter had appendicitis two weeks ago. I doubt that an immunization, clean water or hygiene would have been helpful to us. At a certain point you need one or several high quality local hospitals.
I think we will see a period where we bring many Iraqi doctors to the US for specific training on new techniques with state-of-the-art equipment. These doctors will the turn this facility into a teaching hospital.
I doubt that having sheiks fly for treatment in the Clevelnad Clinic is good for Arab pride.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 8:59 Comments ||
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#6
Interesting.
Our First Lady usually steers clear of politics and political statements. And though she may have some pet cause (reading, for kids or something) like previous First Ladies, we don't usually hear about it.
Very refreshing after 8 years of Hillary trying to ram health care crap down our throats.
And, I for one am a lot more likely to listen to and take seriously anything political Mrs. Bush says, since she doesn't shoot her mouth off.
#8
Lots of Iraqi docs are western-trained. I've worked with a couple. They're pretty good.
As noted, basic public health is coming together -- I've seen news reports that now, for the first time in 20 years plus, ALL Iraqi children have their basic immunization panel done. Clean water, etc. are all coming on-line.
A pediatric hospital helps to train docs and nurses, spreads the circle of excellence in the region, indeed gives people pride in something, and serves as a useful symbol: "work with and become part of the civilized world, and your sick children get better." That's a good messge in that region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 10:16 Comments ||
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Peter Hansen, UNRWA commissioner general, has said that the international agency would be compelled to reduce services extended to Palestinian refugees in the event donor countries did not live up to financial commitments. He told a press conference at the UNRWA offices in Gaza city that some of the Agency's programs would come to a complete standstill. The international official noted that the international community only provided 22% of the total funds demanded by his Agency, describing such a situation as "catastrophic". He explained that UNRWA asked for 193 million dollars to meet urgent needs. He also noted that his Agency did not sense any positive results at the donor countries' recent meeting in Italy.
Tired of dropping money down a rat hole...
Hansen affirmed that UNRWA would continue to offer services to the Palestinian refugees even after the withdrawal of Zionist troops from the Strip. He affirmed that UNRWA would only stop services to the refugees following a UN General Assembly resolution to this effect, which would be only possible after reaching a comprehensive and just settlement to the Palestine cause.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 21:53 ||
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Tired of dropping money down a rat hole...
And the UNRWA commish says that donor countries have "commitments". If there's one thing that'll turn someone off, it's commitments to drop money down a rat hole.
He affirmed that UNRWA would only stop services to the refugees following a UN General Assembly resolution to this effect, which would be only possible after reaching a comprehensive and just settlement to the Palestine cause.
#2
It's not donor fatigue, it's donor disgust. Who in their right mind would provide a $193 million investment to a place that has no plan, clue, or leadership? Understatement of the week:
He [Peter Hansen] also noted that his Agency did not sense any positive results at the donor countries' recent meeting in Italy.
That says it all. In the meantime, Rantburgers all over the globe are prepositioning beer, grog, popcorn, and a variety of delicious munchies around their monitors in anticipation of the grand finale of "Gaga in Gaza."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/02/2004 22:24 Comments ||
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Europe's disagreement with the Bush administration over shunning Yasser Arafat persisted Monday as the Europeans urgently appealed for direct talks between the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.
What part about "no" don't you understand?
Brian Cowen, the Irish foreign minister who represented the 15-nation European Union in a conference with Secretary of State Colin Powell, said the dead stalled Middle East peace process "remains of deep concern to all of us." Speaking for the Europeans, Cowen said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should meet promptly with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. In a session with reporters, Cowen said the Europeans had not changed their position on Arafat, which recognizes him as the rightful leader of the Palestinian people.
What's the phrase, thick as thieves?
"Obviously, we don't have a completely agreed position between the United States and the European Union in respect to that particular aspect of the matter," said Cowen, whose government currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. He said it was important to help the two sides "to take small, concrete and visible steps" under the roadkill "road map" for peacemaking developed by the United States and endorsed by the United Nations, Russia and the European Union.
The one Hamas used for buttwipe...
Cowen's statement followed a closed session with Powell about the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iraq. Afterward, Powell said they had a useful discussion on President Bush's drive for democratic change among Arab governments, which is involved in both the other issues. "We see great opportunity and scope for cooperation on a Greater Middle East Initiative, even though the Paleostinians don't have anyone who sees that." Powell said. But in London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Western countries should not try to dictate the pace of change in the region. Democratic reform cannot be imposed but should come from within, Straw said.
Where did that burst of common sense come from?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 02:36 ||
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I like Jack Straw. For a nominally left wing politican he normally says sensible things.
But this statement is clearly to mollify Arabs and Leftists. He is the foreign minister (secretary) of a country that has 4,000 soldiers in certain country in 'the region' who are unquestionably 'imposing democracy' on what was previously a dictatorship.
It would be actually unusual to hear sensible things from Jack Straw. His blunders far outweight any tendencioes to say sensible things. No surprises here... move along.
#3
Phil_b, I agree with you. Do you notice how naked Straw's statement appears - almost as if it has been sanitized of all context. The journalist must think we are stupid.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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#4
In a session with reporters, Cowen said the Europeans had not changed their position on Arafat, which recognizes him as the rightful leader of the Palestinian people.
But of course! Who else to lead a society well-versed in the practice of terrorism but the master terrorist himself?
#5
Brian Cowen, March 2, 2004: "Obviously, we don't have a completely agreed position between the United States and the European Union in respect to that particular aspect of the matter,"
Emperor Hirohito, August 14, 1945: "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."
Posted by: Matt ||
03/02/2004 11:47 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were today meeting King Abdullah of Jordan and Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom to discuss efforts to revive the dead stalled Middle East peace process. High on the agenda will be the so-called security fence being constructed by the Israelis along the border with the West Bank in a bid to prevent suicide bomb attacks. The fence was yesterday defended by Mr Shalom during the first day of his visit to London, but has been attacked by Arab governments for calling the Paleostinians bluff cutting through Palestinian territory.
King Abdullah's visit is part of a tour of European capitals, including Dublin, Berlin and Paris, which Amman said was designed "to drum up international support to efforts designed to keep the West Bank Paleostinians from moving into Jordan put an end to the intense situation in the Palestinian areas and reinvigorate the stalled peace process".
"You think I want those lunatics in my country?"
Asked for Mr Blair's opinions on the security fence, the spokesman said that the answer to the Israeli/Palestinian question was to make political progress while at the same time addressing real security concerns.
"And that's as good an answer as you're going to get."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 00:11 ||
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Do you suppose the Brits would support pulling down the security fence surrounding Buckingham Palace???
#2
The Brits need to look at their own history. You can't blame them for Hadrian's Wall, but Offa's Dyke was an entirely British affair.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2004 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
"...Offa's Dyke was an entirely British affair."
...It was, till she went off to California to make it a legally sanctified relationship. ;)
The evidence, in terms of reduced violence, proves that the peace process is being bolstered with every block and every nail that goes into that fence. So much for "stalled"!
#4
No, Offa's Dyke was an English affair aimed at keeping out the British. Say what? -- the term "Briton" originally designated the Celtic-speakers of the island. When the Germanic Anglo-Saxons invaded, they called these Celts "Welsh," which simple meant "foreigner." Although pushed into the mountain fastness of Wales, these doughty Celts did a lot of raiding in "England" -- hence the dyke. The modern term "British," used to designate the English, Welsh, and Scots together, came about after the the entire island had been united politically in 1707.
The mullahs ... are fighting a losing battle to keep dissident websites in check. Myriad Farsi-language websites have sprung up with news and opinions that question the clerical government of Iran.
For every site the government shuts down, ten more emerge in their place. Emrooz manages to operate despite having their editors arrested and jailed. There are now between 20 and 30 major political websites active in Iran, most of them being pro-reformist. There are also roughly 20,000 Iranian blog sites and between 50 and 60 have become widely read for their reformist political content. Much to the chagrin of the government, these types of politically oriented sites are growing.
Official estimates place the number of Internet users in Iran anywhere from 2.5 million to 4 million. To satisfy the web surfers, Tehran alone has approximately 1,500 Internet cafes....
Popular sites in Iran include Gooya, a directory of links that includes news and links to Persian-language news sites, chat rooms, music and shopping pages. The Iranian Students News Agency, created four years ago as an alternative to state-run news, has also garnered a large following. These Internet chat rooms, libraries, blog sites, link directories, and news-gathering organizations are an integral part of the civil society today in Iran. ....
The U.S. government has recognized this trend and is playing its part to help. In August 2003, the U.S. Office of Global Internet Freedom agreed to sponsor a web proxy service for Iranian web surfers created by an electronic privacy software company called Anonymizer Inc. The service gives instructions in Farsi and allows Iranians to visit any website without being traced.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 10:41:06 PM ||
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EFL
A high school student suspended for wearing a T-shirt with a machine gun and Marine Corps creed is suing the district over its dress-code policy. Semper Fi!
Nathan Griggs, 16, and his father, David, brought the suit in U.S. District Court against Fort Wayne Community Schools, claiming the shirt was protected by First Amendment free-speech rights, the Fort Wayne News Sentinel reported. And where is the ACLU?
Elmhurst High School Principal Laura Taliaferro ordered Griggs not to wear the shirt because it was "inappropriate for the school setting." To bad he wasn't a fat butch lesbian with a nose ring, body ink, colored hair, and low riders.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
03/02/2004 9:37:38 AM ||
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The liberal left is obsessed with automatic weapons. When did an M-16 become a machine gun?
Super Hose, is there more to this than printed here?
#3
After Griggs came to school in the T-shirt March 17, 2003, a school official warned he would be disciplined if he wore it again. He wore it the next day, believing the shirt was protected under the First Amendment, the complaint says.
The shirt has an image of an M-16 rifle and the text of the Marine Corps creed, written by a general after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Also known as "My Rifle," it focuses on the relationship between a Marine and his rifle, the Fort Wayne paper said.
. . . The suit contends the policy is so strict it prohibits protected speech. For example, a student would be barred from wearing a shirt with the city of Fort Wayne seal because it includes a sword, the complaint said.
No doubt 'My Bong' would have been considered 'Free Speech'....
Just think... these asshats are teaching our children... shudder
#4
This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my rifle and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of my enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.
#10
In a fight between the Marine Corps and the Fort Wayne Community Schools, who's YOUR money on?
ha, ha.
Posted by: B ||
03/02/2004 16:24 Comments ||
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#11
GK, I'll check the news. I beleive Elmhurst is out in the sticks. I expect that a large portion of the membership of the school's PTA is inhabitted by deer-hunters and ice fishers. We had a couple of pro-troop rallies in town, but anti-war rallies. I recommed Monster.com to the lady.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 17:07 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Check out the picture before they discover their mistake !!
