Couldn't be anything they're taught in school or in the mosques...
An unhappy home is the cause of youths going astray and eventually taking to terrorist activities. This was the general consensus of Saudi women delegates at a symposium on the role of the business community in combating terrorism, held yesterday at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). More than 200 male and female sociologists took part in the meeting held to coincide with the International Day of Social Services. A woman sociologist pointed out that a broken home is bereft of understanding and communication with one another within the family. Such a family environment leads to frustration which eventually leads the youth to be misfits in society who resort to nefarious activities. The symposium focused on the role of social services in combating terrorism. The speakers included Maj. Gen. Dr. Saad A. Al-Shahrani, dean of the College of Higher Studies at Naif Arab Academy for Security Sciences, and Professor Abdul Majeed Tash Muhammad Niazi, member of the Faculty of Social Services, Social Science College, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Interesting. Given that in Saudi Arabia homes can only be broken by the husband, the father of those theoretical future terrorists....
#2
An unhappy home is the cause of youths going astray and eventually taking to terrorist activities. This was the general consensus of Saudi women delegates at a symposium on the role of the business community in combating terrorism, held yesterday at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI).
#4
Maybe those unhappy homes come from husbands who beat their wives, fathers who murder their "wayward" daughters and brainwash and intimidate their sons into submission, employers who lock employees in the closet for days, judges who amputate, mutilate, stone to death or behead "criminals"? And where do these Saudis get such ideas. It couldn't be the Koran, could it?
Sweden does not intend to close Kavkaz-Center Internet web-site, Swedish ambassador Johan Molander told journalists in Moscow on Wednesday.
No steps that contravene the Swedish constitution will be taken, the ambassador said. Freedom of the press is the pillar of our social system, he said. The diplomat declared that he saw no link between the freedom of the press and terrorist acts and believes that the Swedish mass media might interview both ambassadors and terrorists.
The explosion of a car that belonged to a Russian diplomat is linked to the position of the Swedish mass media that popularizes the views of Chechen separatists, a diplomatic source said in Moscow. On March 21, the Swedish National News Agency TT circulated an interview with ringleader of Chechen illegal armed formations Shamil Basayev, the source said.
Thus, a direct link between the information space given to separatists by the Swedish News Agency and practical activities of the terrorists is absolutely obvious, the Russian diplomatic source said.
The activities undertaken by terrorists in fact encourage the practice of unpunished violence with passive attitude of the Swedish authorities, the Russian diplomat said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:22:13 AM ||
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Kavkaz is largely a vehicle for Basayev (Khattab is not around to headline anymore) and was closely coordinated with the old "azzam.com" jihadi site. Hell, Basayev's selling his "Book of a Mujahid" on it these days! Johan's general reference to "Freedom of the Press" doesn't explain why harboring an outlet for a self-avowed murderer of civilians is acceptable.
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov stated that he is prepared to deal with anyone advocating a peaceful solution to the conflict in Chechnya, but said he opposes dialogue with Shamil Basayev and Akhmed Zakayev.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it. No way, Khozeh!"
"I'm not ready to talk with Basayev and did not plan to deal with Maskhadov. These people will not assume any tasks that would benefit our people. It would be an empty talk," Alkhanov told a news conference at the Interfax main office in Moscow on Wednesday. He said proposals for negotiations with the guerilla leaders is a trite subject. "Some profit from it, while others use it to make money," the Chechen president said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:20:57 AM ||
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Riot police violently broke up an anti-government protest on Wednesday hours after Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev named a hardliner to take charge of security. Akayev, who promised not to resort to a massive use of force against demonstrators on Tuesday, named the head of police in the capital Bishkek as new interior minister to deal with protests trying to force him from office and which are dividing the mountainous Central Asian country. A short time later, riot police moved in and broke up an anti-Akayev demonstration of about 200 people in the capital.
"Akayev is strengthening his grip on power by putting hardliners in these posts," said Edil Baisalov, who heads the independent Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society. Reuters correspondent Dmitry Solovyov said police beat demonstrators and drove several away in buses. "It was very brief and very violent," he said. The opposition, which has taken control of two major towns in Kyrgyzstan's poor south which saw bloody ethnic clashes in the dying days of Soviet rule, said Akayev's cabinet changes were meaningless. Akayev appointed Keneshbek Dushebayev as new interior minister and sacked his prosecutor general. "These personnel changes do not placate us, because the most important thing for us is the rapid departure of Akayev. We will not stop until he leaves," said Topchubek Turgunaliyev, a member of the opposition's coordinating council. "(They) are the last breath of the Akayev regime ... They could spill blood and at the cost of spilt blood save Akayev's regime." Analysts warned the violence could spiral out of control in Kyrgyzstan which borders China and lies in an energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Both powers have military bases outside the capital. A government spokesman in the capital said Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev might travel south to Kyrgyzstan's second city, Osh, on Thursday to meet opposition protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Technology marches on in Norkieland!
Pyongyang, March 23 (KCNA) -- The Natural Energy Development and Utilization Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has developed a new type of wind-power water pump. It has already paid off in various parts on the west coast including Kwail County, South Hwanghae Province for the supply of drinking, industrial and irrigation water. The pump, with a vertically reciprocating piston with the help of impellers, can draw water up to tens of meters.
The government has directed many efforts to research for making an effective use of natural energy in accordance with the world trend of developing wind-power water pump, taking into consideration the electricity shortage of the nation. An electricity shortage in the Workers Paradise? Could it be possible?
Posted by: tu3031 ||
03/24/2005 9:03:19 AM ||
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Aw, they're just pandering to the moonbats, they don't really believe in alternate energy sources;)
TORONTO (CP) - An American war dodger who fled the U.S. military because he believed the invasion of Iraq was criminal has lost his bid for refugee status in Canada in a case closely watched on both sides of the border.
In a written ruling released Thursday, the Immigration and Refugee Board said Jeremy Hinzman had not made a convincing argument that he faced persecution or cruel and unusual punishment in the United States.
There was no immediate comment from Hinzman but his lawyer Jeffry House said he would ask the Federal Court to review the decision. "Mr. Hinzman is disappointed," said House.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2005 3:18:35 PM ||
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Somehow I don't think he will be accepted like the the prodigal son.
#4
Does this mean that Canada is going to abandon it's unilateral policy and rejoin the community of Nations? I've got news for Canada, they can keep Hinzman we don't need him and he obviously likes it better there. President Bush should strip him of his citzenship (and his family) and deny re-entry into the U.S.
#5
I disagree, guys. This guy is a soldier, a member of the 82nd airborne who decided he didn't like to go to war afterall.
He needs to come back and face the music - he deserted his post and refused lawful orders.
Posted by: too true ||
03/24/2005 16:07 Comments ||
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Agreed Too True. Let him face the music, get his sentence, and above all, spare us the excuses. The man walked off after he broke a commitment to his nation and his fellow soldiers.
#8
In the spirit of the rule of law, and all that, this guy, if he comes back to the US, needs to be held accountable for desertion. Especially when everyone else did their duty and upheld their oath to protect the country and defend the constitution. If he does not want to come back to the US, then he can look for another country to hang out in. Maybe Bobby Fischer has some ideas for him, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/24/2005 18:20 Comments ||
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If he doesn't want to come back and do the responsible thing, he should renounce his U.S. citizenship. He obviously doesn't value it anyway.
He should also convert to islam - then the moonbat Canuck government will welcome him with open arms.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/24/2005 18:23 Comments ||
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Actually, radrh8r, the United States Disciplinary Barracks is on Fort Leavenworth while the United States Penitentiary is outside the military installation. The dude will be processed and classified, then assigned one of several color jumpsuits depending on that classification status. He could work in trust positions or under supervision. Probably will be mowing grass, doing grounds works to start with, if he does go to the USDB.
I expect he'll be court martial'ed [a federal felony conviction record], busted to E1, forfeit all pays and allowances. Most likely he'll get a DD or BCD which eliminates his veterans bennies. The CM Authority can set aside a portion of the sentence as arrived to by the courts martial and just get rid of him without doing time. Depends upon how he feels.
"That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us."
Henry V, Act IV, iii, 35; W. Shakespeare
Peacekeepers need to be punished for any sexual abuse, their pay docked and a fund set up to assist any women and girls they impregnated, a new U.N. report said on Thursday. The searing report from Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, recommended an overhaul of a tattered U.N. military system in the world body's 17 peacekeeping operations of some 64,000 personnel.
A rebuild would be more to the point...
This was particularly needed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the United Nations has accused peacekeepers and civilian staff of rape, pedophilia, and enticing hungry children with food or money in exchange for sex. "The reality of prostitution and other sexual exploitation in a peacekeeping context is profoundly disturbing to many because the United Nations has been mandated to enter into a broken society to help it," Zeid wrote after visiting Congo and interviewing officials and victims.
While the cruelty and rapacity they bring is usually only a drop in the bucket, that's not what they're tasked to bring...
The 41-page report from Zeid, who once served as a U.N. military observer in Bosnia, also recommends that court-martials be held in the country where the offense took place so witnesses could be available. Zeid was asked by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to do a comprehensive analysis of the abuse and suggest policy changes for civilians and for troops, who can only be punished by their home countries. But such punishment is rare.
That's because the crimes are committed against the natives, and they don't feel pain like we do...
He proposed that the 191-member General Assembly approve binding rules that every country contributing troops had to sign that would include prosecutions, setting up funds for victims, especially those with "peacekeeper babies." Zeid acknowledged that distributing condoms to soldiers gave a mixed message. But he said they should be viewed as protection against AIDS and not as a license for sex with prostitutes, girls under 18 or abuse of any kind.
Not to toss cold water onto a good story, but sometimes the lines are pretty fuzzy. Young men away from home naturally seek feminine companionship, except for the nutbags that spend all their time reading the Koran or some other holy book. Camp followers have been a fact of military life since about the time of Gilgamesh. The results are often found in "half and half" babies. So the objective should be to make sure the girlies are of at least the local age of consent and reasonably free from coercion. And if I was in a disease-ridden hellhole like DRC, I'd use a condom when drinking a glass of water.
During his interviews, Zeid said some young girls talked of "rape disguised as prostitution" -- meaning they were raped first and then given money or food to "give the rape the appearance of a consensual transaction." In 2004, he said 80 allegations of abuse in the Congo had been made against military personnel, 16 against civilians and 9 against U.N. civilian police for a total of 105 accusations. Some 45 percent involved girls or boys under 18 years of age, 31 percent related to adult prostitutes and 13 percent involved rape and assault. As for the United Nations, he said too many of Annan's strict rules on commercial or forced sex were drafted at various times and were communicated to soldiers in a haphazard ad hoc way, sometimes not even in their mother tongue.
That's usually the case when the rules are written by bureaucrats...
Among his recommendations were:
A professional team that would use modern technologies, like DNA and fingerprinting, to investigate sex crimes rather than current overlapping probes, often staffed by "enthusiastic amateurs."
U.N. civilian staff who violate the rules should be fired and fined, with monies paid into a trust fund for victims and any children born to them.
National governments should prosecute peacekeepers. The United Nations should deduct from offending soldiers the daily allowance they receive and put it in a fund for victims, especially those who need child support.
U.N. managers and military commanders should be rewarded if they implement policies against sexual abuse. They should be removed from their posts if they do not.
A new database should be created to make sure offenders are never deployed again. For soldiers, their home country should report to the secretary-general what action they took within 120 days and until the case is settled.
Recreational facilities and more frequent leave should be given to peacekeeping personnel, including a free Internet and subsidized telephone calls.
Nothing in there about setting up well-run boys' towns in the vicinity of the troops' quarters, with periodic patrols by MPs and local cops and frequent medical exams. Thats all very clinical and tawdry, so it's the kind of thing the theoreticians try to avoid.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2005 9:23:06 AM ||
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Does this include the Jordanian battalion which took up arms against the Aussie unit that had reported them for making unacceptable use of young boys?
The National Police are considering seeking from Bali bombing suspect Wan Min Wan Mat -- who was released by Malaysian authorities on Monday after being detained since September 2002 -- more information on terror attacks in the country over the past few years.
Spokesman for the National Police Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said the police had not yet arranged a meeting with their Malaysian counterparts to ask them for access to Wan Min.
"Since our investigation of bombing incidents here is not yet complete, we might try to seek information from him (Wan Min) and find out how knowledgeable he is on the terror network in the country," Aryanto said.
Wan Min had testified in a written statement read out by prosecutors in the trial of one of the Bali bombing suspects that he had sent around US$30,500 to a member of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) to finance "operations" in Indonesia.
AFP reported that after his release, Wan Min, who was a lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said he had repented and renounced violence.
Wan Min, who was held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial, will be restricted to Kota Baru, Malaysia's northern Kelantan state's capital, and must report daily to police.
However, there has been no official explanation as to why he was released and not prosecuted instead. According to a source in the Malaysian government, Wan Min is no longer considered a threat to national security.
It remains uncertain as to whether Indonesian Police will use all information from Wan Min to build a new case against alleged JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, or to locate the country's most-wanted fugitives, Malaysian duo Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top.
Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna of the Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, said that Wan Min was well established as an important member and leader of the JI and that it was very important that he should be prosecuted for his activities.
Similarly, head of terrorism studies at the Australian National University Clive Williams, said news of Wan Min's release would be received with concern, particularly because 88 Australians were among those killed in the Bali nightclub blasts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:06:47 AM ||
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Two of Southeast Asia's deadliest Islamic militant groups are collaborating in the southern Philippines to train extremists in explosives, weapons and combat tactics, graduating 23 Indonesian recruits just over a week ago, a jailed terror suspect said Wednesday. The jungles in the south also are providing refuge to terrorists involved in major attacks elsewhere in the region, including the 2002 bombings in a nightclub district on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the prisoner said in an interview with The Associated Press.
U.S. officials have long worried that unrest in the Philippines' impoverished Muslim homeland could be exploited by terror groups. The suspect, Rohmat, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, provided a glimpse into the workings of the already known liaison between the Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah and the Philippines' Abu Sayyaf movement, which authorities say also has links to al-Qaida. Rohmat, a 26-year-old Jemaah Islamiyah member who was captured March 16, said he roamed with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas for about two years, providing combat training, dodging military assaults together and overhearing their terror plots.
He spoke in Tagalog, a sign of the depth of his immersion in the Philippines. He said recruits at the Jabal Qubah training camp run by Jemaah Islamiyah on Mindanao island finished their studies just days before he was caught at a military checkpoint. "There were 23 men who have just finished the courses. I heard they would be sent back home and others would stay behind to train a new batch," a handcuffed Rohmat said during a 30-minute interview held at a military safe house in the presence of officials. He said a separate group of 10 Indonesians from Jemaah Islamiyah -- including two suspects in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people -- were with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas near the camp, but he said he didn't know why. He identified one as Dulmatin but declined to name the other.
Rohmat, whose homeland is the world's most populous Muslim nation, said he traveled to the southern Philippines as a trainee with other Indonesians in January 2000. Two years later, he said, he became an instructor in Islam and martial arts, teaching Indonesians and local Abu Sayyaf recruits in Mindanao's Maguindanao province and on nearby Jolo island. But he denied allegations by intelligence officials that he taught Abu Sayyaf members how to build bombs, particularly the use of mobile phones to trigger homemade explosives. Around 2002, Rohmat said, he was designated by Zulkifli, then the Indonesian head of Jemaah Islamiyah operations in the Philippines, to be the contact man for dealings with Abu Sayyaf, including training its recruits and staying close to its leaders, Khaddafy Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman. Abu Sayyaf planned attacks on its own, independent of Jemaah Islamiyah, which only provided training, he said. Rohmat bore a scar on his right cheek that he said was suffered during a military air strike in November in which Janjalani and Sulaiman scampered out of a targeted house just in time.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:24:30 AM ||
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Officially, Syria is making plans to pull back its occupying forces from Lebanon. But according to sources inside the "Cedar Revolution," the grassroots pro-democratic movement that has sprouted in Lebanon in recent weeks, Syria has no intention of relinquishing power over its puppet state. Working in concert with its counterparts in Iran, Syria has developed what we may call a "Lebanon Plan." The plan entails pulling out its regular troops while deploying a plethora of terror and intelligence networks inside Lebanon. Through the agency of this network, Syria hopes to orchestrate a series of subversive activities inside Lebanon. Syria's aim in pursuing these activities could not be clearer: the Baathist state hopes to prove to the growing chorus of critics calling for the end of Syrian presence in Lebanon that Syria, far from being a rogue element, is needed to maintain security.
This plan is hardly unfeasible. Already in existence is a coordinated network of pro-Syrian groups under the direct command of the Syrian intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, in Damascus. This network includes the Syrian Social-Nationalist Party (SSNP), the Intelligence services of the Lebanese and Syrian regimes, the intelligence network of the Republican Guard and its head, Colonel Moustafa Hamdane. Hamdane is a particularly dangerous figure. Of late, the colonel has been calling all his collaborators in Beirut and supplying them with weapons. In addition, he controls the Lebanese Sunni militia known as "Murabitun Organization." Formerly commanded by his maternal uncle, Ibrahim Koleylat, the militia was resuscitated by Syria a few years ago and is now an organized network in West Beirut with about 500 fighters. They could be ordered into action at any time.
The groups comprising the pro-Syrian network do not work in isolation. They coordinate their activities with the terrorist group Hezbollah as well as various Palestinian terrorist factions. In fact, Syria looks on Palestinian terrorists as its "second reserves." They are to be deployed in the event that "outside forces"—that is, international troops—enter Lebanon.
The Syrian shadow network is wasting no time putting its destructive plan into action. Last week, it struck in Jdeideh, a popular suburban neighborhood in East Beirut. A massive car bomb tore through the neighborhood last Friday, wounding 11 people and wreaking widespread damage to surrounding homes and shops in the area. Though Lebanese investigators are still searching for the culprits, my sources believe Republican Guard operatives planted the bomb. Their strategy is part of the shadow network's campaign of intimidation: they aim to scare Lebanese youth against taking part in the anti-Syrian sit-ins and demonstrations. They may also be seeking to deter financial institutions from lending support to Lebanon's burgeoning pro-democracy movement.
And the Syrian network may just be getting started. Some analysts in Beirut believe that the next item on its agenda is the assassination of anti-Syrian politicians and intellectuals. High-ranking officers in the Lebanese Army may also be in Syria's gun sights—whatever it takes to compel Lebanon to acquiesce to Syrian control. In short, Syria hopes to replicate in Lebanon the terrorist campaign underway in Iraq. That campaign, it is worth noting, is also directed from Damascus.
Up to now, the planned withdrawal of Syrian troops has distracted attention from the Syrian campaign to destabilize Lebanon. But a closer inspection of the withdrawal suggests that it may be part of the larger Syrian plan to preserve its grip on Lebanon. At present, less than four regular brigades of the Syrian Army remain in Lebanon. They have received orders to pull out from Lebanon before April 7. According to sources inside Syria, however, these troops won't be going far. Instead, they will be deployed on the border with Iraq to reinforce the two divisions already stationed there. On the pretext of keeping an eye on U.S. naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, policy planners within the Syrian regime have abjured a complete pullback.
In this, they have already been aided by leaders of the Lebanese Diaspora. Concerned about a potential attack on Lebanese officers by the Syrian Mukhabarat, these leaders have taken their case to the United Nations Security Council. Their demands are simple: they ask for international protection of the only military institution capable of assuming Lebanon's long term security after the Syrian withdrawal. Their efforts have met with a measure of success. Within the United Nations, Western and Arab diplomats are now drawing a red line around the Lebanese Army. They recognize that by holding the line against Syrian pressure and offering protection to dissidents inside Lebanon, the army will play a necessary role in fostering a peaceful, democratic Lebanon.
Inside Lebanon, pro-Syrian politicians desperately yearn for the demise of the Lebanese independence movement. They hope the "wave will die out," and the Cedar Revolution will go the way of Prague in 1968. But within Lebanese civil society, students, farmers, school teachers, fishermen, women's groups and religious orders from all communities know that this is their time, that this is their one shot at freedom. Despite the best efforts of Syria's shadow network and its Lebanese apparatchiks, they may yet achieve it.
Dr. Walid Phares is a Professor of Middle East Studies and Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2005 12:42:51 PM ||
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the violent deaths of Syrian agents will be sad, but necessary for Lebanon's independence. Hezbollah should watch their backs as well...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 13:21 Comments ||
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I think the new Iraqi army could teach the Lebanese some things about combating 'insurgents', terrorists, and foreign agents.
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iranian engineers have built a secret underground storage area for use as a uranium enrichment facility in a restricted military area of interest to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, an Iranian exile said Thursday. The exile - Alireza Jafarzadeh - said by telephone from Washington that the ``camouflaged tunnel-like facility'' was completed recently at Parchin, a sprawling Iranian military complex about 20 miles southeast of Tehran. An Iranian official who normally speaks freely to the press refused to comment on the record about the report, saying the allegation was not worth responding to.
A senior diplomat familiar with International Atomic Energy Agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said the agency was unaware of such developments. But the diplomat told The Associated Press that if such construction did occur without notification, it would constitute a violation of an agreement by the Iranians to suspend all uranium-enrichment activity.
The freeze is in effect while Iran and European negotiators discuss ways of banishing international suspicions that Iran wants to use the technology to make nuclear weapons. France, Germany and Britain, the main European negotiators, insist that Iran pledge to scrap or permanently suspend its plans to enrich uranium. Tehran, which says it needs the technology to generate electricity, refuses to go beyond a suspension during the talks. The third round of talks wound up in Paris on Wednesday with Iran refusing to mothball the program but apparently willing to maintain the temporary freeze.
Jafarzadeh, asked specifically if enrichment activities were going on at the underground storage area, said his contacts, whom he described as ``having access to information inside the Iranian regime,'' did not know whether the equipment was just being stored or was active. Jafarzadeh is the former spokesman of National Coalition of Resistance of Iran, banned in the United States by Washington, which considers it a terrorist organization.
IAEA inspectors visited Parchin early this year and were allowed to take environmental samples from some of its buildings to test U.S. allegations that Iran may be testing high-explosive components for nuclear weapons by using an inert core of depleted uranium as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material. But Tehran turned down a renewed agency request to visit other parts of the site last month, arguing it was not bound under agreements with the agency to open Parchin or other facilities not clearly linked to Iran's nuclear program to outside survey.
Jafarzadeh, who now runs the Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting think tank, revealed key information about two hidden nuclear sites in Iran in 2002 that helped uncover nearly two decades of covert Iranian atomic activity - and sparked present fears that Tehran wants to build the bomb.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/24/2005 12:38:28 PM ||
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Lebanese Sunni Muslim militant Mohammed Ala al-Din already has an assault rifle that he says is for his personal protection.
Across town in the northern coastal city of Tripoli, Ibrahim al-Hayek, a Christian who fought in Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war for a secular pro-Syrian militia, is looking to buy one.
"I want a small rifle," Hayek, who handed over a cache of guns after the war, said, holding his baby daughter on his lap
"Since 1990, I didn't want one. But now I do in case something happens."
Lebanese familiar with the legal weapons market in Tripoli said demand for small arms had climbed since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which sparked huge anti-Syrian street protests.
Black market prices for weapons and ammunition have also jumped and assault rifles are not readily available to meet demand, Lebanese and Palestinian sources said.
Syria, under international pressure, has announced plans to withdraw its troops. But the Lebanese government has fallen, creating a political crisis before elections due in May.
A standoff between pro-Syrian loyalists and the opposition has fuelled Lebanese fears about renewed conflict in a sectarian society in which experts say most households are armed.
An overnight bomb blast killed three people in a Christian area on Wednesday, five days after another explosion wounded 11.
At one Tripoli gun shop where rows of rifles sit in glass cases, a dealer said demand had jumped by 60 to 70 percent for licensed weapons like pistols and pump action rifles.
Many of his customers are first-time buyers, men in their 20s and 30s seeking to protect their families.
"With the pump action, they put it in the house. They use it for everything. It is for protection and hunting," said the dealer, who asked that only his family name, Yassin, be used.
"Everyone now is afraid for his shop or his house... They are afraid because of the situation."
The weapons trade flourished during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, although Christian and Muslim militias that had sliced the country into feuding fiefdoms later gave up their heavy weapons.
Light weapons such as pistols and assault rifles were not collected and remain in domestic arsenals that are a legacy of years of bloodletting.
"We are dealing with a country where the national state was not so powerful... It was a matter of survival," said Timor Goksel, a retired spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon.
"It is not seen as a very major threat to society that people have personal weapons, so long as they are in the hands of individuals. The main fear is weapons in the hands of Palestinian militias or organised groups," he said.
The Lebanese and Palestinian weapons sources in Tripoli said the fresh demand for guns was coming from Lebanese of all sects seeking light weapons for personal protection, not for armed groups. Heavy weapons were not on the market. "There is a consensus not to resort to force to resolve the conflict," a senior Lebanese army source said of the country's political crisis. "We have no information about people re-arming... Up to now there is no great danger."
Among Lebanese groups, only Hizbollah is openly armed. The Shi'ite guerrillas kept their weapons after the civil war to fight Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
Palestinians, whose refugee camps the Lebanese army does not enter, also kept arms after the war. Clashes occasionally occur in the camps, but a Fatah official in the Badawi camp north of Tripoli said Palestinians had "no military agenda" in Lebanon.
Goksel said he was impressed that street protests had been peaceful and believed more violence could be avoided despite the scattered bombs, shootings and grenade blasts of recent weeks.
"But another major incident or upheaval can turn the tables around," he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:28:19 AM ||
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We must be vewy quiet. We'w hunting tewwoists. AHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Syria's long been known to call the shots in Lebanese politics, but as the country struggles with its worst political crisis in years, Lebanon's government has slipped out of sight. Foreign dignitaries come and go without calling on the government, anti-Syrian opposition leaders are traveling the globe visiting world leaders, the Lebanese president skipped an Arab summit this week and his designated prime minister, who quit Feb 28 but was reappointed 10 days later, can't from a Cabinet. Some Lebanese consider it an undeclared isolation of the government because of accusations leveled by the opposition that state security agencies were involved in the Feb 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.
The government's grip on the political agenda also may be slipping. President Emile Lahoud, canceling participation in an Arab summit in Algeria that opened Tuesday, cited "exceptional circumstances" in the wake of a car bombing early Saturday that injured nine people and raised the specter of renewed violence similar to that of the 1976-90 civil war. Lahoud called for immediate dialogue but the opposition rejected that, saying the president was a party to the political standoff. Former Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who has launched a third-option campaign offering Lebanese ground between that of the pro-Syrian government and the anti-Syrian opposition, did not spare either side of criticism. He has warned that the polarization would drive the country toward the unknown, expressing concern about a power vacuum, but his calls, have not caught on. "It seems as if the government, even while being a caretaker one or in the process of designation, lacks the vision and the initiative and consequently a role," Hoss said in a statement. "This is (political) bankruptcy."
Premier-designate Omar Karami also has warned of a power vacuum without a government, insisting he may bow out if he is unable to form a Cabinet. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa went further when he questioned the wisdom of the calls for Lahoud to resign. "Is it in the interest of national harmony to have a big constitutional vacuum in Lebanon?" he asked in an interview on LBC television. Despite Lahoud's control of the military, security services and the pro-Syrian camp's majority in parliament, the president's prestige has suffered amid opponents' calls for him to step down.
Opposition leaders, by contrast, are being receiving by leaders around the region and beyond. Maronite Catholic Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, considered the silent force behind the opposition, was received at the White House last week and also met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York. Walid Jumblatt, a Druse whose also been a leading figure in the opposition, traveled to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Moscow, Berlin and Brussels. He met Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Dignitaries visiting Lebanon to pay their respects to Hariri's family and visit his tomb - but skipping even a courtesy call on the Lebanese president or prime minister - include French President Jacques Chirac, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and members of a US congressional delegation. A long line of Arab dignitaries, including many from the Gulf where Hariri - a naturalized Saudi - had many contacts, also ignored Lebanese government officials when they streamed to the Hariri family home and to the grave on the central Martyrs' Square. The explanation, some said, was because the visits were private to offer condolences.
But many were unconvinced. Visitors shunned the Lebanese government because it is "under political siege and because administering Lebanon has been put practically in the hands of the (UN) Security Council, which grants domestic legitimacy or withholds it and sets the general political course," wrote Bishara Charbel, editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper Sada Al Balad.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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An investigator into the assassination of Lebanon's former premier has asked to step down. Michel Abu Arraj, the chief judge in the investigation, made the request before a UN report expected to criticise the Lebanese government's handling of the inquiry is published. He asked to quit because he is exhausted and because of the "atmosphere of scepticism surrounding the investigation", Justice Minister Adnan Addum said on Wednesday. The minister, accused by the anti-Syrian opposition of allegedly helping in a cover-up, said he would immediately nominate a new magistrate to be approved by the Supreme Judicial Council, which is to meet on Thursday. The investigation into al-Hariri's assassination is at the core of the political turmoil in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Just hours after a bomb killed three people and heavily damaged a shopping mall in Lebanon's Christian heartland, defiant residents unfurled a giant Lebanese flag on the wrecked building, and shop owners began working to reopen their stores. "The Lebanese people will not kneel. An explosion causes damage but we will repair," Raymond Muhanna said as he stood amid shattered glass in the electrical appliances shop where he works. "This will not destroy the Lebanese people."
Yet many Lebanese clearly are worried about where and when the next explosion will come — and whether their country is again headed toward sectarian fighting and economic turmoil after peaceful years that saw a rebirth from the devastating 1975-90 civil war. Only last summer, as hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists poured in, officials spoke proudly of how secure Lebanon was compared with others in the Middle East. But things have worsened dramatically: On Feb. 14, a huge bomb killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 17 others in Beirut, sparking a political crisis amid mass street protests against a 20-year occupation by Syrian troops.
Wednesday's bomb at the Alta Vista shopping center in Kaslik, on the southern outskirts of Jounieh, came only five days after a bombing that wounded nine people in another Christian neighborhood, Jdeideh in northern Beirut. The bloodshed came as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned at an Arab League summit in Algeria that an international investigation into Hariri's murder might be necessary. He told Arab leaders he expected to release soon a U.N. fact-finding team's report that is widely expected to criticize the Lebanese government's handling of the probe. "I believe a more comprehensive investigation may also be necessary," Annan said. A Lebanese newspaper owned by Hariri's family said this week that the U.N. team will report that Lebanese authorities prematurely removed the vehicles of Hariri's motorcade from the scene of the blast and cleared the site before sufficient forensic evidence had been collected. Lebanon's opposition has accused the government and Syria's regime of playing a role in the assassination — a charge both governments have denied.
The bombing at the Alta Vista shopping center damaged all 103 shops, which include European and local brands such as Spain's Bershka cloth store and Lebanon's Mouawad Jewelry. The center also had a Buddha Bar nightclub that was closed. Since Hariri's assassination, much of Beirut's nightlife had shifted from downtown to the Kaslik and Jounieh area, a picturesque harbor where steep green mountains hug the Mediterranean. Ibrahim Khoury, the shopping center's director, estimated damages at $3 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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It's pure coincidence this announcement's made the same day Akaev departs...
President Hosni Mubarak's son tried to end public speculation about his political ambitions by declaring Wednesday that he won't run as a candidate in this fall's presidential elections. He said his father — who made the surprise announcement earlier this year to allow multi-candidate balloting — had yet to say whether he himself will run for the post again.
Don't chance it, Hosni. Remember what happened to Ceaucescu...
"I'm not a candidate," Gamal Mubarak said at a news conference at the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party. Gamal, 41, heads a powerful policy-making committee in the NDP. Also Wednesday, the the banned Muslim Brotherhood — Egypt's oldest and largest Islamic political group — set the stage for a confrontation with authorities by demanding more constitutional amendments and declaring its intent to demonstrate in the streets, where it is not allowed to congregate. Presidential elections are scheduled for September, with parliamentary elections due in November.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 12:13:43 PM ||
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An Israeli Arab from Bakka al Gharbiya who transported the suicide bomber who blew up at the Stage nightclub in Tel Aviv on February 25 was also involved in deciding on the location where the attack would take place.
Posted by: gromgorru ||
03/24/2005 10:27:52 AM ||
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#1
Many from Bakka al Gharbiya are in the Israeli police.
Terror networks like Al Qaeda are increasingly resorting to "cash couriers" in an effort to evade new international banking system controls, a top US Treasury official said yesterday.
Mr Stuart Levey, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, praised recent measures that may help drive terror groups to "riskier, more cumbersome" ways of moving cash around.
Mr Levey was speaking to reporters here, where he was meeting officials from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Osama bin Laden's terror group is adopting the new tactics as governments have joined forces to make the international banking system "more transparent — and more difficult to move money through", Mr Levey said.
He also credited a recommendation in October by the OECD's Financial Action Task Force requiring international travellers to report large amounts they carry across borders.
The FATF decision reflected a growing concern that existing controls, often designed to impede flows of drug money, were out of date and ill-suited to the battle against terrorism.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:04:50 AM ||
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Using cash couriers is highly inefficient, and it radically reduces your OPSEC. If you cannot even get a single legitimate company or organization to launder your cash, you are hurting.
In a new video released by the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)--a known Al-Qaida affiliate group active in North Africa--GSPC commander Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud has sworn that Allah will "destroy America" and further sent greetings to "the leaders of jihad, who are the true leaders after their own leaders became apostates. They are the source of light in our dark exile and the hope for the wounded nation of Islam. To the fighting Shaykh Abu Abdullah Usama Bin Laden, Mullah Mohammed Omar, Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri, to the beloved hero and the leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to the patient brothers and brave lions in Chechnya — Abu Hafs [al-Urdani] and [Abu Omar] al-Saif, to the brave fighters in Palestine and to the mujahideen everywhere — may Allah protect you all."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/24/2005 12:13:54 AM ||
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Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday urged Pakistan and India to put behind their tense bitter past and move toward peace through the resolution of all outstanding problems between them including the core issue of Kashmir. Amid a display of military power, Musharraf said that Pakistan will continue its "moral, diplomatic and political" support for separatists in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir who want freedom from Indian rule. "We are totally with the Kashmiris in their struggle," Musharraf said in an address at a military parade marking Pakistan's National Day, which featured a march through the capital that included thousands of troops, nuclear-capable missiles and other high-tech weaponry. "Our moral, diplomatic and political help will always continue in their struggle until they succeed in their great objective. Our sincere prayers are with them," Musharraf said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
US, India discuss military deal amid improving ties
Warlords controlling Somalia's bullet-scarred capital of Mogadishu said they would introduce a no-confidence motion against President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in Parliament and seek his removal for allegedly violating the lawless country's transitional charter.
I don't have any confidence in him either ...
Somalia's Public Works Minister Osman Hassan Atto vowed that Mogadishu's warlords would organize to impeach Yusuf. Atto, who is also one of Mogadishu's powerful warlords, was quoted by local radio as saying that warlords would move a no-confidence motion against the president in the Parliament and press for his resignation. "Mogadishu's faction leaders, who are currently ministers, have good relations with other parliamentarians. We have met with other MPs and have decided to pursue impeachment of the president. The president has violated the transitional charter for the government's relocation to Somalia. The president wants to relocate the government to the towns of Jowhar and Baidoa instead of the capital Mogadishu," said Atto.
Not a bad idea, 'cept that they prolly have as many zanies and gunnies in Jowhar ...
Several deadlines to relocate the government from Kenya to Somalia have passed. Last week, two years into the latest effort, Somali Parliament members based in Kenya punched and smashed chairs and walking sticks into one another during a row over whether foreign peacekeepers should be deployed in their country. Somali parliamentarians voted last week against government's call for peacekeepers from neighboring countries to help disarm the country's militiamen.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Who knew there was a Somali president, or any other governmental structure?
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2005 7:19 Comments ||
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#2
Neat trick, violating the laws in a lawless country. I might keep this guy. He thinks outside the box.
#3
This is the stuff that makes Somalia great folks! Can't tell who's who between the thugs, lawmakers and civilians who all pretty much bahave with the same idiocy.
#4
they have had for a couple of years something called the Transitional National Govt. One had hoped the TNG at least controlled Mogadishu. Evidently its writ even there is pretty weak.
Two leftist Palestinian militant groups said yesterday they would compete for the first time in a parliamentary election in July after boycotting the last vote in opposition to an interim peace deal with Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine linked their decision to Cairo talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, at which factions extended a de facto truce with Israel. The largest militant faction, Hamas, an Islamic group sworn to Israel's destruction, said this month that it would contest the parliamentary election for the first time, a move that could threaten the longtime dominance of Abbas' Fatah movement. The militant groups, behind a series of shooting attacks and suicide bombings in Israel during a 4-1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising, rejected the 1993 Oslo Accords which gave Palestinians a measure of self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.
PFLP leader Rabah Muhana said his group changed its stance because the Cairo talks made clear the Palestinian goal of achieving statehood and promised reform of election procedures. He said parliamentary representation could better enable his group to press for democratic change and an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East War. Ramzi Rabah, a DFLP leader, said his group had changed its strategy in view of world backing for Palestinian statehood. "The situation has changed from Oslo. The whole world is now convinced that for peace and stability to prevail in the Middle East, a Palestinian independent state must be established," Rabah said.
Abbas' mainstream Fatah faction won 66 seats in the 88-member Parliament in the first Palestinian election in 1996, which was boycotted by groups that rejected the Oslo accords. The PFLP and DFLP together command less than five percent support among Palestinians, polls show. Hamas has the backing of a quarter to a third of Palestinians. Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group that also denies Israel's right to exist, has yet to decide whether to contest the election. Abbas, a moderate elected on a platform of nonviolence to succeed the late Yasser Arafat, conducted the talks in Cairo this month that led to an agreement for continued calm, seen as a key step towards renewing peace talks with Israel.
This article starring:
RABAH MUHANA
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
RAMZI RABAH
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Goodness, what choices! There's the man in the black&white kaffiyeh, the man in the red houndstooth kaffiyeh, the man in the black balaclava, the man in the white ghost headdress... O! However is a girl to choose?!?
#2
Having a Life of Brian moment here...
s/Judea/Palestine/g
s/Roman/Israeli/g
--------
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS: Wankers.
...
REG: Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.
BRIAN: I do!
REG: Oh, yeah? How much?
BRIAN: A lot!
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f***ing Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah...
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters!
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!
#3
Having a Life of Brian moment here...
s/Judea/Palestine/g
s/Roman/Israeli/g
--------
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS: Wankers.
...
REG: Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.
BRIAN: I do!
REG: Oh, yeah? How much?
BRIAN: A lot!
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f***ing Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah...
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters!
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!
#4
Having a Life of Brian moment here...
s/Judea/Palestine/g
s/Roman/Israeli/g
--------
REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.
FRANCIS: Wankers.
...
REG: Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.
BRIAN: I do!
REG: Oh, yeah? How much?
BRIAN: A lot!
REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f***ing Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah...
JUDITH: Splitters.
P.F.J.: Splitters!
FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...
REG: What?
LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!
LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
REG: People's Front! C-huh.
FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
REG: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!
UNITED NATIONS - France put the United States in a tight spot on Wednesday by calling a vote on a measure referring perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region to the International Criminal Court, which Washington rejects. The French draft, expected to be brought up in the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon, would also exclude nationals of any state that had not ratified the treaty setting up the Hague-based court—including American citizens—from prosecution for participating in any UN operation in Sudan.
The United States, which on Tuesday split its draft resolution on Sudan into three parts in an effort to break a Security Council deadlock on Sudan, decided to seek a vote on Thursday only on the part authorizing 10,000 peacekeepers for southern Sudan, which was virtually assured of passage. That would delay action on the two other resolutions dealing with Darfur—one offering three options on how to prosecute Darfur atrocities and one seeking sanctions targeting government and rebel leaders involved in fighting there.
Diplomats said as many as 10 of the council's 15 members could end up backing the French draft.
Hmmm, choices: what would be more effective in solving the problem in Darfur, a French-backed resolution for the International Criminal Court or a brigade of the 82nd Airborne?
That would leave Washington with an unpalatable choice. It could both abstain and thus let a measure go through that it has vowed to oppose, or veto it, preventing a crackdown on what the United States says is genocide by the only tribunal able to start an immediate investigation.
Carla del Ponte could pencil Darfur in for 2010 2012.
Make that 2013, after the Paris Olympics...
French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere insisted Paris did not intend to force Washington into an embarrassing veto.
"Non, non! Certainement pas! "
"The Security Council—and we're one of those with a very strong position on this issue—says it is absolutely essential to act against impunity," de la Sabliere told French radio RFI. "It's essential because the victims need justice, but also because it is the best way to prevent further crimes. We had to act now, and France has shouldered aside its responsibilities today."
After closed-door talks, council members said Russia, China and Algeria appeared to back the US approach. The nine council members that have ratified the ICC treaty—Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Romania and Tanzania—expressed support for the French draft. Japan and the Philippines were uncertain, they said.
But the Bush administration proposed a new UN-African Union tribunal as an alternative. President George W. Bush wants nothing to do with the ICC, fearing US officials and soldiers serving abroad could be targets of politically motivated prosecutions.
The US peacekeeping resolution would authorize a UN mission to monitor an accord ending a separate 21-year civil war between the Khartoum government and rebels in south Sudan. The second US draft resolution, which is not now being put to a vote, would strengthen an arms embargo on Darfur and order sanctions against human rights violators and those who undermine a cease-fire in the region. Russia and China, which have veto power, as well as Algeria and other nations have objected to some of those measures. Â
The issue here is that France wants to force the US to recognize the ICC. Once that happens, then we are isolated for not working in/through it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Vote for the resolution. Then introduce another resolution requiring the ICC member nations to take all necessary measures to enforce it.
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2005 7:14 Comments ||
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#2
The French draft, expected to be brought up in the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon, would also exclude nationals of any state that had not ratified the treaty setting up the Hague-based courtâincluding American citizensâfrom prosecution for participating in any UN operation in Sudan.
Oh, I see. They are structuring a resolution so that UN pederasts and their ICC enablers can conduct child molesting operations without fear of prosecution.
#3
Support the resolution and let the Frogs swing in the breeze as nothing comes of it. Then take some action (unilateral!) on Sudan and rub the Frogs noses in it.
#4
Being as how we aren't playing along with this ICC bullshit, we should just drop any interest we might have in the matter, step back, and watch the sideshow begin.
#6
gosh! I feel so isolated by our moral superiors!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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#7
USA isolated? Have Russia and China ratified the treaty yet, Aris? And what about the 50 or so countries that had signed Article 98 bilateral agreements with the U.S. by about July 2003? And how many are there now? It's just yet another tempest in a Euro teapot.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#8
Don't worry, Frank, you have Russia, China, North Korea, Zimbabwe and the whole of the Arab League to keep you company in the anti-ICC stance.
So you're not all that isolated after all. I had mainly meant you were isolated from the rest of the democratic world.
#9
A so-called "UN-African Union tribunal" -- I've not seen anyone yet explain how that is any better than the ICC. May I suggest that the ICC could be seen in that part of the world as a legacy of oppressivist attitudes toward former African colonies by Western European elites, when we should all accept and moreso actively support African ability to take on the burden of self-government in the area of regional justice. ;-)
Truthfully, though, it is an exercise in growing political maturity for the African nations to take onboard the concept of discerning truth and handing down justice, as opposed to the historical practice of tribe-based violence and revenge. Equally, a long overdue gesture of trust and respect on the part of the former rulers, who justified colonies there as part of the White Man's Burden to bring civilization to the benighted savages of the Dark Continent, the results of which effort have been to date considerably less than exemplary.
#10
trailing wife -- yeah, that's a largely good point, and in a previous thread a couple days ago I believe I had mentioned something similar about a connected issue -- but as I mentioned even back then I have reason to distrust the current displays of supposedly anti-colonial rhetoric in the third world.
Half of the time it's progressive and shows countries finally trying to solve their own problems, but half of the rest of the time it's an amoral show of solidarity in opposition to morality. Any democratic pressure they label "Western imperialism/colonialism/interventionism"
In short the question is: Will such an African tribunal actually punish the guily, or show "African solidarity" and let almost everyone go?
#11
92 countries had signed Article 98 bilateral agreements with the U.S. by mid-July 2004. Yeah, Aris, we're isolated and quakin' in our boots.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 10:50 Comments ||
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#12
Tom, if you're not "isolated" now because of the existence of those 98 agreements, then that means you won't be isolated even if this UN resolution passes. No worry for concern then on that front.
#13
"...preventing a crackdown on what the United States says is genocide by the only tribunal able to start an immediate investigation."
What is needed is 10,000, maybe 20,000, armed African military backed by airpower (actually even Spanish and Italian airpower might be enough). France's idea basically allows the genocide to continue by pretending we are going to stop it by 'investigating' it.
#16
The ICC is another chunk of tranzi garbage the confederation weak sisters(the EU)would love to see the US tied to. Trying again to impose their will on countries who actually have the capacity to deal with problems, instead of a desire to spout off non stop about their moral superiority and complete inability to actually solve those problems unless of course if it involves bribery. The US is well advised to stay as far away from the ICC as possible.
By the way, since when is France relevant?
#17
Ihe ICC is a fact. The U.S., China, and Russia non-participation and the U.S. agreements with 98-and-counting countries to work around it are also facts. The U.S. also has a Security Council veto. All that considered, the French may go merrily on their way, drafting anything they want, knowing full well that if they don't edit to our tastes then they may as well be drafting on toilet paper -- the soft U.S. kind, not the waxy European kind.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 12:16 Comments ||
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#20
Nevermind, I suppose you are back in your own private universe, and your posts have once again started revolving around the discussions of statements I've never made.
Still, would be fascinating to let me know what assurances I'm supposed to have made.
#23
Article: The French draft, expected to be brought up in the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon, would also exclude nationals of any state that had not ratified the treaty setting up the Hague-based courtâincluding American citizensâfrom prosecution for participating in any UN operation in Sudan.
I don't actually see this as a problem. If the Frogs want to fight the Sudanese without Uncle Sam's participation, more power to them. This I have to see. Maybe Greece, Belgium, France and Germany will crank up their formidable war machines to rescue black Muslims from certain death. Bring out the popcorn...
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/24/2005 20:15 Comments ||
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#25
Maybe Greece, Belgium, France and Germany will crank up their formidable war machines to rescue black Muslims from certain death
the only thing that could make this less probable is if the Darfur people were Joooooos
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 20:15 Comments ||
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#26
Zhang Fei, I don't think you read that correctly. It doesn't exclude Americans from participating. It excludes them from *prosecution* if they do participate.
#27
Has the European Union signed? Will the European nations that have signed still be bound when/if the European Union Constitution is "ratified?"
:)
Enquiring minds wish to know!
#29
It's inherently another Brussels thing, Asedwich. A skunk by any other name would smell as stinky. And if you actually cared, Aris would still be snippy.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 20:40 Comments ||
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Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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#32
Thanks Tom... but you know, I do care. That's why I ask. Otherwise I'd just jump in and flame. Which is fun in its own way, but I try to confine it to FARK.com. Now there's an idea... wonder if I can get a Fark thread greenlighted on Rantburg? :)
#33
Bad karma to invoke prior to service along with a bunch of armed men who invariably won't like you...or did you weasel out of that? Can't we all get along? Til May at least?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 20:53 Comments ||
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#34
The ICC is not a bad idea. Look at the cases they take currently.
But the US reserves about joining it are understandable. Every single activist in the US (and of course outside) would make it a priority to abuse the ICC for political gains. The ICC would be overwhelmed with "war crimes" of Bush, Rumsfeld etc, and have no time left to deal with real war crimes. Sooner or later they would be forced to take a US case just to show that they're not "biased".
A no win situation. Secretly they are glad that the US is not a member.
#35
Frank G, no, we two will never be able to get along -- that's because you are a troll and an asshole that stalks me around the forum. Cause and effect. You being stalker troll asshole => means we don't get along.
Frank, my life doesn't and shouldn't concern you one bit, but FYI no I didn't weasel out of it.
#36
Aris, you have about ten minutes to retract that "death wish" before a small mob demands that you be sent to the Sinktrap forever.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 21:15 Comments ||
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#37
love you too, Aris. Happy Easter
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 21:16 Comments ||
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#38
Let them descend, Tom. His fake well-wishes, my sincere ill-wishes. His little jokes about the "armed men who invariably won't like me". Whatever. If I'm banned no big loss for me or anyone else.
I didn't violate decency anymore than he did. He always makes jabs about my personal life that oughtn't concern him. You may have your superstitious hangups about wishing ill on people, I'm much more annoyed by his stalking and his (and your) intrusion in my private life, not to mention the way he (and you) attempts to destroy any thread I enter.
#40
Thanks, Aris, but a simple "no" would have sufficed as well. My question was mostly rhetorical.
My issue is that I smell a conflict of interest, of jurisdiction, providing significant waffle-room for Union nations. My reading of the Constitution hasn't been thorough enough to determine what priority it would give to jurisdictional disputes involving EU signatories, either between themselves or between the collective and other Nations.
Which was the second part of my question.
Thanks TGA, that answers the charitable corrolary! :)
#43
*rolls eyes* Very well, I shouldn't have externalized my desire to have ill things happen on him.
I apologize that I let my feelings about Frank create a post that will mess up the thread more, and which superstitious people may consider as bad magic that may actually harm Frank. I don't think that such wishes have any actual power to harm people.
That's as sincere an apology as I can make it, if sincerety still matters for anything. I still want bad things to happen to Frank, but will try to refrain from expressing such desires.
#46
gee, thanks :-) - bad news is I'm feeling pretty f&*king good, sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 21:36 Comments ||
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#47
That's your retraction? Confirming that you really meant it? Calling me superstitous?
*** EDITORS, SINKTRAP FOR ARIS, PLEASE. ***
Posted by: Tom ||
03/24/2005 21:37 Comments ||
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#48
Perhaps I'll be simply "sorry" in a day or two. Right now, with anger and annoyance both in full, sincerety demanded that I qualify my apology. I'm sorry about *that* fact.
#50
Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Romania and Tanzania- those signatories of the ICC are pushing for our agreement to the ICC because in the end their populaces' lust for American blood was not sated by the Iraq War. Not enough Americans died for them to feel that justice in life has been done. We are right to recoil from it. The ICC is a coliseum ticket for members of the "international community" to draw American blood. Americans agreeing to such a thing would be the equivalent of putting our heads into nooses. Va te faire foutre, la France.
"May I suggest that the ICC could be seen in that part of the world as a legacy of oppressivist attitudes toward former African colonies by Western European elites..."
A quite cogent diagnosis, Aris; and now, that Western European legacy has morphed, making the US the natives against a global political mob. We are the new "colony" and are rightfully suspicious of those "Western European elites".
Worth considering, the restraint by Japan and the Phillippines. A small sign of hope for the Asian alliance trend?
#51
The ICC would be overwhelmed with "war crimes" of Bush, Rumsfeld etc, and have no time left to deal with real war crimes. Sooner or later they would be forced to take a US case just to show that they're not "biased".
Wouldn't necessarily be just 'war crimes'. Very likely an incident in Okinawa would get leveraged beyond the Status of Forces Agreement into an ICC case. Okinawa seems to have lots of "friends" when there are problems or situations to exploit (like the offshore landing strip).
I see the EU as a giant mistake, with unelected bureaucrats making decisions that will kill/bankrupt some nations/parties in the interests of a "favored few". I am not an expert in the minutiae, nor do I pretend to be. I merely speculate on the potential negatives (the Euro-propaganda press makes sure the other side is heard), and in particular, their effects on NATO and in particular, the hated hegemonist (USA) in coming in and cleaning up the mess AGAIN. I hope we don't do it. I hope Aris is right and all will be hunky-dory, but I remain a skeptic.
That said, Aris is a hyper-sensitive arrogant ass of insufficient wisdom and years, who, like beetlejuice, arrives at the invocation of his name. His website shows the glimpses he wants the world to see, and for the life of me I don't fathom why. I welcome his departure upon his national service, and hope it will change him into someone I can respect, nothing more. Should he remain the same, I will not bother with him, he's not worth it. Happy Easter
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 21:47 Comments ||
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#53
To TGA, Aris, and Fred and any other editors: I don't think an apology is good enough.
We go through this *rusted junk* every time. You literally ejaculate over any thread having anything to do with Europe, eventually degenerating to accusing America of being the new Caliphate and/or issuing death threats to other posters on the thread.
(I wonder if that former bit had its origin in the fact that the US stopped the Greek Orthodox in the former Yugoslavia from an attempt to ethnically cleanse Moslem Bosnians and Kosovars from that area).
And after flamewar after flamewar has driven off all the *interesting* comment posters, he offers a little "I'm sorry" about one or two of the dozen or so gratuitous insults in the thread, and pretends it makes everything OK.
Scroll upward. The mountain of rust is still there.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/24/2005 21:50 Comments ||
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#54
Right now, with anger and annoyance both in full, sincerety demanded that I qualify my apology. I'm sorry about *that* fact.
#55
You always bother with me, Frank G, no matter how many dozens claims you've made that you'll ignore me from now on.
The respect of someone like TGA I may care for, but yours I don't desire nor wish to ever gain.
If someone doesn't use protective gear that doesn't give you automatic permission to hit below the waist. The fact you can't understand as something as "the power to do something doesn't mean the automatic moral right to do something" is the very reason you are contemptible to be. You'll never get why googling for peoples' photographs and making fun of their physical appearance is wrong for example. You'll never get why trying to increase any anxiety I may have for going to the army may be wrong.
I've never seen you show the slightest hint that you perceive the difference between *ability* and *rightness*. If you can use something, you'll do it. You call yourself Catholic, but you behave as someone who's in the Church of Satan instead.
#56
Phil, I've never issued a death *threat*. The statement "I wish you dead" is different than a *death threat*.
And "any thread having anything with Europe"? Not so by far. And the only time I ever compare America to the Caliphate is within the exact same threads that Europe is foolishly compared to it. Indeed in much fewer ones.
#57
"To TGA, Aris, and Fred and any other editors: I don't think an apology is good enough."
I concur.
Fred, please get this Aris jerk out of here, NOW.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/24/2005 22:02 Comments ||
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#58
Let's make one thing clear - avoiding you and your mobius strip arguments doesn't mean I will refrain from commenting on ANY topic, in ANY thread I feel like. Your hyper-sensitivities will not censor my voice. Clear? Happy Good Friday, from a Catholic, and a better man than you'll be, it seems, despite my faults
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 22:04 Comments ||
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#59
I don't know why Aris prefers this forum over others.
I can only tell you why I post here: Because Rantburg is one of the few forums that have always welcomed posters who hold different views as long as they stayed civil in their discourse. I for one welcome this because this fact can lead to interesting discussions.
To wish speedy death on someone who annoys you (and I think I had a few words with Frank G over that already) simply crosses the line. It will disqualify you.
You gave an "apology" that even the worst politicians do better. Nobody can force you to be sorry if you aren't. But in that case, just shut up or react like an adult: "I apologize for my remarks. They were uncalled for."
Best yet, don't post full of anger and annoyance. Take a deep breath first.
#61
And the only time I ever compare America to the Caliphate is within the exact same threads that Europe is foolishly compared to it. Indeed in much fewer ones.
And you can't seem to see the contradiction you just posted.
Aris, whether statistically you post in every Europe thread is moot. The perception I have is that you act like a newly house-broken cat that regards any thread about the EU as your personal litter box.
My perception of you is that you have failed in school, totally and abjectly for you failed to take the one lesson every professor wants you to take: To expand upon your learning and experience, to learn more, primarily through experience, reading and conversations.
You seem to be the person who gets through school and they have come to the inescapable conclusion they need to learn nothing else. That's doesn't make you stupid, but it does make you look ignorant.
#62
yes, TGA, we talked, and you were right, I still believe.
and always welcome to discuss separately, remove NoSpam. from my email addy
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 22:17 Comments ||
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#63
*sigh* TGA, I'll sorry you feel that way. You are by far the poster I respect the most.
Crossed the line I may have -- but I think they're crossing the line 20 times a day.
There was a thread recently, started by .com. Once again people there focused on the superficiality (my use of foul language) and not the actual attitude by .com, more obnoxious than anything I said. What I considered shameful, was the way he had started with trollery, proceeded with lies and ended up with him descending to incoherency and posting an ugly photo of me. What he found shameful is the fact I may have a mistake about judging the nature of Kyrgyzstan's revolution.
Look, I'll make it easy to Fred and take the decision away from him. Whether cultural or personal or ideological or whatever, clearly I don't belong here any longer. And this time it's not just a statement of intent, it's a clear promise I'm making -- I promise I won't post again in any other thread on any day. A couple more posts in this one perhaps, but once this day is over you won't see me in Rantburg again -- if you see my name here it will definitely be someone faking me.
#64
Goodbye and good luck in all you do, Aris. I meant what I said (in a good way)- that your service committment may really do you good, and I admit you should be congratulated on fulfilling it.
Frank
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/24/2005 22:24 Comments ||
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#65
Frank G, I also remember that you apologized without reserves (although I'm sure you weren't really sorry). But that's not the point.
I have often discussed with people who I believed were assh****. (Happened a lot around 1980 when the Pershing II discussion was in full swing). Occasionally I got carried away. After that I apologized. We're humans. Those people were still assh*** in my opinion.
Aris, apologies are part of civil discourse. But the apologies I have heard very often and always found worse than no apology at all was the typical "political apology" along the line: "Im sorry if I offended you by calling you an assh***".
#67
Aris, as I have said already, some posters are no angels here and if they attack you ad hominem, they should apologize as well. You'll have to swallow quite a bit in the army, because, at least in the first week, you'll be a nobody, the guy who gets kicked around. That's how it is with the military all over the world.
I always respect your opinion, Aris, sometimes I even share it, more often I share it with reserves, and quite a few times not at all. This happens with other Rantburg posters as well.
Rantburg is a civil, tolerant forum, compared to most others. With your attitude, you'd be banned at LGF AND Kos before your third posting. Some posters may not have treated you fairly but you always had a forum that would hear your arguments. I guess that's one reason you stick around here.
If you prefer to leave because you are unable to apologize, then unfortunately I won't miss you. If you are able to realize that your cup runneth over for a minute, I'll gladly continue to hear your arguments, if you chose to make them here.
Rantburg is a forum for "civil, well-reasoned discourse," as well as the personal website of one extremely busy man. We are fortunate that Fred has used his mad web design skillz to create an interactive blog that has the best commentary in the 'Sphere and the easiest comment registration system possible. I hope that you each will take a moment to reflect on your participation in Rantburg discussions. Fred can choose to uninvite any or all of us for any reason or no reason at all. These long discussions full of personal attacks and insults waste his bandwidth and other readers' patience.
#69
Aris
In your later years you will be surprised how much your views change. It's the way of man. You start life young and full of energy and drives. For some they are drives for a better world. As you discover more about the background behind issues the dirty dealing and the politics you become more jaded and conservative. This is not just on the global level. You will find it in companies, in clubs even in the clergy.
Somebody will find a way to gain advantage from the best of ideals and pervert them in the process. That's where the beauty of the US Constitution was. Implicitly it understands that so it enshrines checks and balances. Maybe that's where the US loses it over the ICC. It shreds the checks and balances we have spent ages creating for only a minor result.
Saudi Arabia and Sudan are set to sign two agreements here today on fighting terrorism and smuggling, and extradition of criminals.
And who would know terrorism and smuggling better than the Soddies and the Sudanese?
Interior Minister Prince Naif held talks here yesterday with his Sudanese counterpart Abdul Rahim Hussein in preparation for the signing of the accords. Prince Naif arrived here on Tuesday, a day after the chief of the Sudanese intelligence spoke about the presence of Saudi extremists who had intruded into Sudanese territories. Prince Naif began his Khartoum talks with a meeting with Ali Othman Muhammad Taha, first vice president. Speaking to reporters, Prince Naif said his talks with Hussein focused on security issues. He said the two accords which will be inked today, would set the framework for security cooperation between the two Arab countries. He emphasized the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Sudan and commended the high morals, sincerity and trustworthiness of Sudanese expatriate workers in the Kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON - India's chief of naval staff Admiral Arun Prakash, who is on a US visit, discussed purchase of American equipment and systems as part of stepped up defense cooperation, it was announced here on Wednesday. Details of the purchase were not announced but New Delhi had said this week that a contract was likely to be signed for the purchase of submarine rescue vehicles.
India is also reportedly working out a deal for the purchase of 10 retrofitted Lockheed Martin P3C Orion long-range naval maritime spy aircraft to plug gaps in reconnaissance capability.
Prakash, on a 10-day visit to the United States since March 19, held talks with top defense officials "which focused on ways to further India-US naval cooperation including joint exercises and acquisition of US equipment and systems for the Indian Navy," the Indian embassy said in a statement. "Both sides reiterated their determination to strengthen all aspects of defense cooperation in the context of the transformed India-US relationship," it said.
"The two sides reaffirmed that the bilateral relationship has been on a steadily ascendant trajectory in recent years and has gained greater strategic content," the embassy said.
Take that, Perv.
India and the United States had almost finalised a contract for the US navy to rescue Indian submarines in distress when US sanctions following New Delhi's nuclear tests in 1998 derailed the deal, Prasad had said.
The supply of submarine rescue vehicles along with flying kits and P3C Orions would be the second largest defence deal between the two countries in recent years, news reports have said.
Admiral Prakash's itinerary includes visits to US Navy bases and facilities at Norfolk, Newport, Colorado Springs, Seattle and Hawaii.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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ALGIERS — So-called Arab terror-supporting leaders once again steered clear of ran away from the region's most contentious issues as they decamped from wrapped up a worthless summit yesterday, while their feckless irresolution to re-ignite reactivate a Middle East roadkill peace plan was swiftly rejected by Israel flying F-16s. Algerian President with an unpronouncable name Abdelaziz Bouteflika said in a drunken closing statement that the rubes at the summit, marred by the absence of several key flats and marks players, "locked up consolidated the bowels bases of a durable Arab movement reconciliation".
But maverick Libyan yutz leader Maumer Qaddafi sent up upstaged the at last final session of the yammering summit in Algiers with an Fidel-length unscheduled babbling address in a lovely Liz Claiborne gown describing Israel and the Palestinians as "idiots", leaving they wished his audience in fits of laughter at him.
The meeting of venal thieves and projectors also was marked yet again by the summit's failure but we repeat ourselves to tackle anything some of the most long-standing controversial issues facing their troubled of their own making region, including Babyface Assad's Syria's pullout from their colony of Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The Muttahida Majlis-e-Aamal (MMA) on Wednesday said that it would push forward with its agitation against the government till Islamic order was enforced and dictators were removed from power. The MMA held the much-trumpeted million-man march in Lahore on Wednesday at Azadi Chowk near Iqbal Park, the venue for the historic Lahore Resolution passed on March 23, 1940.
MMA leaders said that General Musharraf's days as president were numbered and the April 2 strike would be a referendum against him. Addressing the rally, MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that the MMA's struggle was against the enemies of Islam and the military dictatorship. Qazi claimed that he was not motivated by lust for power and that the premiership or presidency meant nothing to him. He appealed to people to form a united front against the government.
MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan claimed that the million-man march was on the right track and would achieve its objectives. Qazi said that a change in the echelons of power had become inevitable because the government's policies were strengthening capitalists and the feudal system instead of the poor. He claimed that such a change would be brought about by the people of Pakistan, not by the United Sates. The MMA leader said the journey which the Muslims of the subcontinent began on March 23,1940, was still on and would culminate only when they had overthrown the dictatorship and enforced an Islamic regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Jeez. Fella in the pic looks distraught over the last of the Boom County strips.
Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti invited Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the PML president, on Wednesday to visit Dera Bugti and negotiate with him on the Balochistan crisis. "You are welcome to Dera Bugti. Our doors are always open to you," PML sources quoted Bugti as telling Shujaat during a telephone conversation. Sources said it was not yet decided whether and when Shujaat would visit Bugti. Shujaat, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary committee on Balochistan, told Bugti the government wished to resolve controversial issues by meaningful dialogue. Recently, Bugti had commented that both Shujaat and Mushahid Hussain, the PML secretary general, were powerless people and could not help normalise the situation. Shujaat asserted that he had full authority from the government to hold dialogue with Baloch leaders to settle the crisis. He said the Balochistan committee was independent and answerable to parliament. Sources said the telephone conversation was arranged by Ali Sher Mazari. Shujaat told Bugti that he had President General Pervez Musharraf's mandate. During his meeting with parliamentarians, Bugti had lashed out at Musharraf accusing him of murdering his tribesmen. He also termed the parliament "toothless".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Arab leaders concluded their two-day summit here yesterday. They decided to relaunch the 2002 Arab peace plan, originally proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah, and to create a pan-Arab Parliament. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa read the Algiers Declaration in which the delegates underscored the need to reactivate the Arab initiative and urged the international community to support the peace plan. Moussa also announced the creation of an Arab Parliament with four members from each of the 22 Arab League states and said the next summit would be held in Khartoum next year. The Parliament will be based in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi created a stir at the summit's concluding session when he described both Israelis and the Palestinians as "idiots," much to the amusement of most delegates. Qaddafi, however, criticized the world community for its double standard in implementing UN Security Council resolutions. He cautioned against the danger posed by the use of force and of making Resolution 1559 into a pretext to attack Syria. "Why do they insist on implementing Resolution 1559 while ignoring all the resolutions related to the Arab-Israeli conflict?" the Saudi Press Agency quoted Qaddafi as saying.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the summit that Syria's military pullout should be completed by May. He also said that a new probe into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri would likely be needed. Addressing Arab leaders, including Syrian President Bashar Assad, the UN secretary-general called for free and fair parliamentary elections in Lebanon in May. "Within the next few days, I expect to release the report of the mission of inquiry I established in the wake of the killing. A more comprehensive investigation may be necessary," Annan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
The Parliament will be based in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Well, it's sure to succeed then.
#2
âWithin the next few days, I expect to release the report of the mission of inquiry I established in the wake of the killing. A more comprehensive investigation may be necessary,â Annan said.
...as we did find some really nice new restaurants in Beirut.
#4
...as we did find some really nice new restaurants in Beirut.
The pubs weren't too bad, either!
Posted by: Peter Fitzgerald ||
03/24/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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#5
since they couldn't achieve much else, in order to find something that would make them appear unified, they simply reverted to that old standby - death to Israel (or some facsimile thereof).
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.
An unhappy home is the cause of youths going astray and eventually taking to terrorist activities. This was the general consensus of Saudi women delegates at a symposium on the role of the business community in combating terrorism, held yesterday at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). More than 200 male and female sociologists took part in the meeting held to coincide with the International Day of Social Services. A woman sociologist pointed out that a broken home is bereft of understanding and communication with one another within the family. Such a family environment leads to frustration which eventually leads the youth to be misfits in society who resort to nefarious activities. The symposium focused on the role of social services in combating terrorism. The speakers included Maj. Gen. Dr. Saad A. Al-Shahrani, dean of the College of Higher Studies at Naif Arab Academy for Security Sciences, and Professor Abdul Majeed Tash Muhammad Niazi, member of the Faculty of Social Services, Social Science College, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.
Chechen President 
Riot police violently broke up an anti-government protest on Wednesday hours after Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev named a hardliner to take charge of security. Akayev, who promised not to resort to a massive use of force against demonstrators on Tuesday, named the head of police in the capital Bishkek as new interior minister to deal with protests trying to force him from office and which are dividing the mountainous Central Asian country. A short time later, riot police moved in and broke up an anti-Akayev demonstration of about 200 people in the capital. 
Two of Southeast Asia's deadliest Islamic militant groups are collaborating in the southern Philippines to train extremists in explosives, weapons and combat tactics, graduating 23 Indonesian recruits just over a week ago, a jailed terror suspect said Wednesday. The jungles in the south also are providing refuge to terrorists involved in major attacks elsewhere in the region, including the 2002 bombings in a nightclub district on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the prisoner said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Syria's long been known to call the shots in Lebanese politics, but as the country struggles with its worst political crisis in years, Lebanon's government has slipped out of sight. Foreign dignitaries come and go without calling on the government, anti-Syrian opposition leaders are traveling the globe visiting world leaders, the Lebanese president skipped an Arab summit this week and his designated prime minister, who quit Feb 28 but was reappointed 10 days later, can't from a Cabinet. Some Lebanese consider it an undeclared isolation of the government because of accusations leveled by the opposition that state security agencies were involved in the Feb 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri. 
President 
In a new video released by the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)--a known Al-Qaida affiliate group active in North Africa--GSPC commander Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud has sworn that Allah will "destroy America" and further sent greetings to "the leaders of jihad, who are the true leaders after their own leaders became apostates. They are the source of light in our dark exile and the hope for the wounded nation of Islam. To the fighting Shaykh Abu Abdullah Usama Bin Laden, Mullah Mohammed Omar, Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri, to the beloved hero and the leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to the patient brothers and brave lions in Chechnya — Abu Hafs [al-Urdani] and [Abu Omar] al-Saif, to the brave fighters in Palestine and to the mujahideen everywhere — may Allah protect you all."
Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday urged Pakistan and India to put behind their tense bitter past and move toward peace through the resolution of all outstanding problems between them including the core issue of Kashmir. Amid a display of military power, Musharraf said that Pakistan will continue its "moral, diplomatic and political" support for separatists in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir who want freedom from Indian rule. "We are totally with the Kashmiris in their struggle," Musharraf said in an address at a military parade marking Pakistan's National Day, which featured a march through the capital that included thousands of troops, nuclear-capable missiles and other high-tech weaponry. "Our moral, diplomatic and political help will always continue in their struggle until they succeed in their great objective. Our sincere prayers are with them," Musharraf said.
Warlords controlling Somalia's bullet-scarred capital of Mogadishu said they would introduce a no-confidence motion against President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in Parliament and seek his removal for allegedly violating the lawless country's transitional charter. 
Two leftist Palestinian militant groups said yesterday they would compete for the first time in a parliamentary election in July after boycotting the last vote in opposition to an interim peace deal with Israel. The 
alt="food for euts.">
Saudi Arabia and Sudan are set to sign two agreements here today on fighting terrorism and smuggling, and extradition of criminals. 
The 
Baloch nationalist leader Nawab 
Arab leaders concluded their two-day summit here yesterday. They decided to relaunch the 2002 Arab peace plan, originally proposed by Crown 
