EFL
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says President Bush should have used his extensive authority under the law to monitor suspected terrorists rather than approve the National Security Agency's disputed monitoring program. HUH??
"I would not want any president Democrat or Republican to have the expanded power the administration is claiming in this case," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press. Someone who makes Di-Fi look like the sage of the senate...Jeebus
Pelosi did not say the NSA's surveillance program was illegal. But she said the administration should follow the procedures in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows government lawyers to ask a secretive court for warrants for surveillance in the United States during national security investigations. so, just bitching without a basis....typical
"If you say ... this is for a narrow universe of calls, there is absolutely no issue with getting a FISA warrant for that," said Pelosi, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and has been involved for the past 13 years in overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies.
"It is when you go beyond that, that it becomes a challenge," she said in the interview Friday. "The president says he is not going beyond that, so why can't he obey the law?" she hurts my head...
Pelosi declined to offer specifics about warrants granted, but she said the administration already has "the mother of all FISAs which enables them to do a lot." "a lot"...whooboy!
Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush approved a program that allows warrantless monitoring by the NSA of the international communications of people on U.S. soil who may be linked to al-Qaida.
Pelosi has spoken publicly about the need for congressional oversight on this program. While she has been briefed several times by the administration, Pelosi has said that does not mean she approved of the surveillance. "I just forgot to say I didn't..."
She wants Congress and the president to have the best intelligence available, yet broadly questions the legality of the domestic surveillance.
The Justice Department, in the administration's most recent defense of the NSA program, issued on Friday a six-point "Myth vs. Reality" rebuttal of criticism leveled against Bush's action. It claims that Bush has legal authority through his position as commander in chief as well as through a congressional resolution passed shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The administration also resists descriptions of the program as domestic spying, arguing that the communications under surveillance involve an overseas party. And it contends that the program is consistent with FISA, which the administration suggests moves too slowly for some monitoring.
In her first extensive comments on the NSA program, Pelosi offered additional details during the interview about her concerns, including her belief that the administration is making weak arguments to justify the monitoring.
read the rest for her "comments". I can't...This is a winner of an issue for teh Republicans, especially if this botox dimwit continues to speak out
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006
17:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
WTFH???!!!! This House member is a suicidal loon! I just cannot get a grip on the disconnect that these Dem loons are in. I can understand jihadis and their actions a whole lot easier---they grew up with this looniness. But Pelosi is fixated on the hate of GWB, so it does not matter how she does it, but she wants to destroy the Administration, even though she could be targetted by terrorists. She wants the same "wall" installed just like that gal on the 9-11 commission set up between agencies.
Basically, the issue is not the issue. They want to use the surveillance issue as a club to impeach the President and destroy the administration. Maybe this country should have it out right now and dispell these loons to the dustbin of history. We have a war of survival going on, and it is going to get a lot more intense with Iran in the near future. A pox, a proletarian pox upon her and her ilk.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/28/2006 17:45
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Think the 1936 Republican convention. That's the donks in 2008.
(2006-01-28) Hamas yesterday took responsibility for its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, a political bombshell that reverberated around the world.
We are a very responsible party, said an unnamed Hamas spokesman from behind a dark veil, The Palestinian people trust us because we are always taking responsibility.
The source said Hamas has been responsible for reducing crowding at public shopping and entertainment venues, decreasing global warming by taking greenhouse gas-producing city buses out of service and widening the openings at border crossings between Israel and the Palestinian territory.
We also have done our part responsibly to prevent overpopulation, he said. We are now ready to take responsibility for governing the Islamic Republic of Palestine and its nearby Zionist territory.
From LGF:
For immediate release: Friday, January 27, 2006
Contacts:
Jodie Evans, (310) 621-5635 (in Venezula and US)
Medea Benjamin, (58 416) 208-0134; (415) 235-6517
Cindy Sheehan to Dianne Feinstein: Fillibuster Alito or Ill Challenge Your Senate Seat
Caracas, Venezuela - Gold star mother Cindy Sheehan has decided to run against California Senator Diane Feinstein if Feinstein does not filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. While in Venezuela attending the World Social Forum, Sheehan learned that several Democratic Senators had announced their plans for a filibuster but that Senator Feinstein, whos up for re-election in November, had stated she would vote against the nomination but not filibuster it. Im appalled that Diane Feinstein wouldnt recognize how dangerous Alitos nomination is to upholding the values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential powers, for which Ive already paid the ultimate price, Sheehan said.
Note the presse contact: Medea Benjamin is the founder of Code Pink and a radical, thuggist Communist from way back.
#3
Whoa. Medea looks like a 10 years younger Cindy Sheehan. The future ain't pretty.
Posted by: ed ||
01/28/2006 16:56
Comments ||
Top||
#4
If Cindy runs I will send her money. Living in Califoirnia it would give me great pleasure to watch that catfight while a GOP candidate slides in for a victory.
#6
Did Ms. Benjamin's parents saddle her with that appalling first name, or did she rename herself? Look up the story of Jason and the Argonauts in Hamilton's Mythology. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned--and Medea reacted to being scorned by killing her children.
Anxious to cultivate his populist image, Irans new President Ahmadinejad has promised to hold the monthly sessions of his Cabinet in provincial capitals rather than Tehran.
Now, however, it seems as if, for reasons of security, he may not be able to take his road show to all of Irans 30 provinces. A session scheduled to take place in the province of Kurdistan last month had to be rescheduled at the last minute, supposedly because the relevant documents were not ready in time. And last week the president was forced to cancel another session, due to take place in Ahvaz, capital of the Khuzistan province, ostensibly for bad weather.
In both cases, however, factors other than bureaucratic delay and bad weather may have been at work.
The province of Kurdistan has been a scene of sporadic anti-government demonstrations since last June. At least 40 people have reportedly died in clashes with the security forces while more than 700 have been arrested. The authorities have also closed down a number of Kurdish-language publications, in contrast with Ahmadinejads promise not to organize a crackdown against the press.
Ahvaz, for its part, has witnessed a series of bomb attacks and terrorist operations during the past four months with several clandestine organizations calling on the provinces ethnic Arabs to revolt against Ahmadinejads repressive policies.
It is not yet clear whether or not the current unrest in Kurdistan and Khuzistan might have a major ethnic ingredient.
Iranian Kurds number around six million, or some nine percent of the population, and are divided in four provinces plus important communities in far away Tehran and Khorassan. The last time that Iranian Kurds were seduced by on a large scale by ethnic policies was in the mid-1940s when, with help from the Soviet Union, they set up a republic of their own in the city of Mahabad.
The republic folded after one year and nine of its 12 leaders were hanged in public. But its memory has lived on and continues to inspire a small but determined number of Iranian Kurds who feel that they are getting a rough deal from the Khomeinist ruling elite in Tehran.
As for ethnic Arabs, they number some three million or over four percent of the total population. At least half live in Khuzistan with others scattered in four provinces stretched along the Gulf.
Unlike the Kurds, Irans Arabs do not have any secessionist history. On the contrary they emerged as the most ardent defenders of Irans unity in the 1940s when the Soviet Union was busy promoting secessionist republics in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan. Bound to the majority of Iranians by their Shiite faith and a long history of intermarriage, the Khuzistan Arabs also played a leading role in the oil nationalization movement in the 1950s and, later, in defending Iran against Saddam Husseins invading armies in the 1980s.
During the Khomeinist revolution of 1978-79 both ethnic Kurds and Arabs stayed largely on the sidelines. The Kurds, a majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, were wary of a regime headed by Shiites. The Arabs, for their part, feared that a purely religious regime might try to restrict the wide measure of individual and social freedoms that Khuzistan, as one of Irans most advanced provinces, had built over the decades.
After an initial series of local revolts, all crushed with exceptional brutality, the Kurds resigned themselves to life under the Khomeinist regime. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the regime managed to decapitate the Kurdish political leadership through a series of assassinations inside and outside Iran.
In the past two to three years, however, Irans Kurdish-majority areas have witnessed an upsurge of political activity. One reason is the leading role that Iraqi Kurds have assumed in the new Iraqi system. Another is Ahmadinejads avowed devotion to the cult of the Hidden Imam and his claim of legitimacy on that score. The Kurds, however, do not believe in the concept of the Hidden Imam which they regard as un-Islamic and fear that the new cult may provide a cover for attacks against their own religious beliefs and culture.
Ahmadinejad would be wrong to dismiss or minimize the threat of ethnic dissent in the Islamic Republic. Irans ethnic minorities, including the Kurds, the Arabs, the Turkmen and the Baluch, account for at least 12 percent of the population.
Located along the countrys long and porous borders these communities could be open to manipulation by anyone who wishes to weaken Iran or pay back in the same currency the Islamic Republic for its machinations in neighboring countries.
Political expediency, not to mention justice and human rights, demands that urgent attention be paid to the legitimate grievances of Irans ethnic minorities. It took Turkey some 30 years of war to understand that it cannot force its Kurdish minority to abandon their identity and become ersatz Turks. It has taken Iraq almost 80 years of tragic experiments to recognize the Kurds as a distinct people deserving full cultural and national rights. In the long run Irans unity could only be preserved in the context of pluralist diversity.
In the meantime a word of warning is called for to all those who might think that playing the ethnic and sectarian cards against Ahmadinejads new militancy might help knock some sense into Tehran. Any attempt at encouraging secessionism in the Iranian periphery could only mobilize the mainstream nationalism of Iranians in support of a regime that, its feigned defiance notwithstanding, has lost much of its original support base.
Ahmadinejads so-called second revolution may have little in the way of positive creativity to offer inside or outside Iran. But it still has large reserves of negative energy that could be deployed in the service of a destructive policy in the region as a whole.
Fanning the fires of ethnic and sectarian resentment against Tehran is not difficult especially at a time that Ahmadinejad seems determined to lead the nation into an unnecessary conflict with the rest of the world. A Yugoslav-style scenario for Iran may help speed up the demise of the Islamic Republic. But it could unleash much darker forces of nationalism and religious zealotry that could plunge the entire region into years if not decades of bloody crises.
The current fever provoked in Iran by Ahmadinejad and his pseudo-messianic message is little more than an epiphenomenon which, given patience and wisdom, could be contained and neutralized. Here is a monster that feeds and grows on crisis and conflict. The answer is not to lead it to a banquet table but to starve it.
Muslim World League calls for UN interventions against disdaining religions
RIYADH, Jan 28 (KUNA) -- Muslim World League (MWL) called Saturday on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to activate international laws against insolence of religions.
MWL Secretary General Dr Abdullah Al-Turki condemned, in a letter addressed to Annan, the discretion of Prophet Mohammed (PBU) by Danish and Norwegian newspapers, which published cartoon depicting the Prophet in a disrespectful way.
Al-Turki said in the letter that Muslims around the world felt very offended by the unethical campaign, noting that international laws prohibited scorning religions and other hatred-provoking practices.
He stressed that UN should intervene to stop media campaigns against Islam, which might ignite clashes between different cultures.
Moreover, he called on Annan to immediately and directly contact the Danish and Norwegian governments to demand them to ban media campaigns against Islam and to officially apologize for the Muslim nation.
Al-Turki also called on the international community to adopt a clear law criminalizing individuals and institutions that disrespect religions.
#1
Wonder how they feel about the Lions of Islam who defecated in the sanctuary of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Does this mean that they have to quit calling us infidels and kaffirs and quit burning Christian churches? These people descend into self-parody.
#2
A very few, not very bad, cartoons about the [truth about] Prophet Mo. - horribly wrong!
Weekly preaching of 'Kill Kill Kill the Infidels! Jews! and Christians!' which occur every Friday all across the world in thousands of Islamic Mosques - No Problem!
#4
your religion, society, and prophet are pathetic excuses if you've gotta appeal to the UN to "make them stop teasing me"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 15:08
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"...activate international laws against insolence of religions."
The only religion whose insolence warrants an international law against it is Islam.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/28/2006 15:17
Comments ||
Top||
#6
So is the MWL asking the UN to ban all muzzie preaching, or is the Master Religion gonna be exempt?
Posted by: ed ||
01/28/2006 15:24
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'm a thinking one of teh greatest weapons to use against Islamo-fascism and Wahhabists is out and out ridicule and comic abuse. When you can tell jokes about Allan on stage without threat of being killed, it's over. That's why the fatwas and Islamo-outrage. Fuck em if they can't take a joke. They do stoopid things, behave badly, treat their women like dogs because of their own lack of male assets (if ya know what I mean *wink*), and demand respect? LOL!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 15:26
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Go ahead I am already and outlaw. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is a corrupt moron. I am sure you can buy what ever you want from him.
Freeking green flag waving clowns you and you patheic prophet of hell have just about had your full run. Keep your hypocrisy at home, it's smelling up the place.
#9
WHAT!!!??? Were they snickering when they said this?
Did anyone happen to mention the "sons of pigs and monkeys" comment about Jews, repeated over and over throughout the muslim world? Or the blood libel? Or the protocols of zion thingie?
Let them start by setting an example. And that's gonna happen when those pigs they seem to obsess about, fly.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Saturday warned the United States and Britain that Iran would respond with its missiles if attacked, a clear threat to Israel, which lies within easy range of such a launch.
"The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles)," Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said on state-run television.
Iran's improved version of Shihab-3 missile can strike more than 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) from their launch site, putting Israel and US forces in the Middle East in easy range.
"We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defense measures if attacked," he said. "These missiles are in the possession of the Guards."
"We are producing these missiles and don't need foreign technology for that," he said. Iran announced last year that it had fully developed solid fuel technology for missiles, a major breakthrough that increases their accuracy.
Safavi also accused US and British intelligence services of provoking unrest in the oil-rich southwestern Iran and providing bomb materials to Iranian dissidents. He said the US and Britain were behind bombings January 21 that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, near the southern border with Iraq where 8,500 British soldiers are based.
"Foreign forces based in Iraq, especially southern Iraq, direct Iranian agents and give them bomb materials," he said.
Safavi said Iran was monitoring dissidents and their alleged links with the US and British forces.
"We are aware of their meetings in Kuwait and Iraq," he said. "We warn them (US and Britain), especially the MI-6 and CIA, that they refrain from interfering in Iran's affairs."
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 15:54
Comments ||
Top||
#3
NOTE THIS: This could be part of their plan. That is, they will pre-emptively launch missiles and claim it is in retaliation to an act of war against them.
Also note that the British are foremost in their accusations. This means there is some focus on the British forces in southern Iraq. This could mean something.
#4
There will be no "holding Israel back" for any provications. The provications are all there and plain to see as the nose on ones face. This international political dance is about to come to an end. The Chinese and Rus really have not calculated Israels reactions very well from what I have read.
The election of Hamas, an Iranian client movement, is likely the actual tipping point. Israel really doesn't need a justification anymore. Who is going to attempt to stop them? Us? I think not.
Irans throw weight is 0%. Not enough MMs will be left around to carry out any "reprisals" should they decide to lunch any missiles at anyone. Look for an Iranian grab at the oil fields in southern Iraq cloacked as an Shia Iraqi move in the near future. Thats why all the anti-UK forces noise is being made.
Greed and stupidity with a huge heap of religious mania. It's not just for breakfast anymore in Iran.
#5
WTF? Are they just trying to get us to take them out? I thank God every day I was raised in a Western world with a Western logic and a philosophy of the greater good. It seems as if we will not end this any time soon and my young son will end up there also.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/28/2006 17:09
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Current US strategic doctrine has this scenario well covered. The Iranians may be busy, but we have been busier. I shall say no more.
KABUL - A court-martial has found a US soldier guilty of maltreating a detainee in Afghanistan by punching him several times, and sentenced him to four months detention, the US military said on Saturday.
The court-martial on Friday at the main US base at Bagram, north of Kabul, found James R. Hayes guilty of one count of conspiracy to maltreat and two counts of maltreatment, it said in a statement. Hayes and another soldier, who is due to face a court-martial on Monday, had been accused of punching detainees in the chest, arms and shoulders at a base in southern Uruzgan province in July. A third soldier has already been punished for knowing about the incident and not immediately reporting it to authorities.
He was sentenced to reduction in rank to private, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances for four months and confinement for four months, the statement said. He is held in custody at Bagram Airfield pending transfer to Kuwait for detention.
The command takes this matter very seriously, said Marine Lieutenant Colonel Bob Fifer, chief of criminal justice for the force.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006
13:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
BAGHDAD - Iraqs interior minister said on Saturday that the conservative Shia United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won most seats in the December election, will take half the ministries plus one in the next government.
Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh told AFP that the group also wanted the posts of Iraqi vice president and parliamentary assembly vice president. The political consultations are ongoing and the alliance will take half of the ministerial posts, plus one, including three major positions: either defence or interior, in addition to finance and oil, he said. The decision of the alliance is also to have the position of vice president of the republic and the vice president of the national assembly, he added.
But he added: We want a government of participation and national unity in which each community will be represented according of its electoral weight.
So long as everyone remembers who is top dog.
Solagh, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), one of the chief parties making up the UIA, also said: We see doubling the number of deputy prime ministers (allowed under the constitution) to four so as to allow for the representation of all members of Iraqi society.
Two for them, one for the Kurds, and one for the Sunnis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006
13:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think this is the official bargaining position of "We get everything, and you get what is left over"; which will shortly be followed by the opposition demand that *they* get everything. This will be followed by mutual cursing about unfairness. Then the casbah will officially be open for business and the real bargaining will begin.
BAGHDAD - The mayor of the restive northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar was wounded on Saturday when rebels attacked his office, security officials said. Najim Abdullah, the mayor of Tal Afar, was wounded when rebels fired mortars at his office, a police officer from Tal Afar said. Insurgents fired four mortars which landed on the office of the mayor and wounded him, the officer said.
The attack came after a US commander declared Friday a fragile victory in the town, four months after a US-led military operation was carried out to break the hold of terror network Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in the city. In a press conference last week, US military spokesman Major General Lynch distributed to reporters a letter from Abdullah thanking the US military for clearing the town of insurgents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006
13:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Sunni Arab and secular groups have agreed to form a single bloc in talks with Kurds and Shias on a new coalition government, in a bid to strengthen their negotiating position, officials said on Saturday.
The main Sunni Arab political grouping, the Iraqi Accordance Front, and the Iraqi National list led by secular former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have joined the Iraqi Unified Front of Sunni politician Salih Mutlak, the officials said. The parties will formally announce the move on Sunday.
By negotiating together they have a better chance, said Abdul Hadi al-Zubeidi, a member of the Accordance Front. They have the same ideas, such as forming a technocrat government, opposing federalism in the south and the centre, and they all agree that the Interior Ministry should not be in the hands of people related to political parties, he said.
Sunnis want to amend the constitution, fearing that its provisions for federalism will give Kurds and Shias control over Iraqs vast oil reserves and eventually break the country apart. Sunnis also whine complain that police, controlled by the Shia-led Interior Ministry, unfairly target their community.
By joining forces, the Sunni and secular parties would have a total of 80 seats in the 275-seat parliament, making them the second-biggest bloc in the assembly. The Shia Islamist Alliance won 128 seats in the Dec. 15 parliamentary poll, while the Kurdish Alliance, with whom they formed a coalition government after elections in January 2005, won 53 seats. Basically it is to face the Kurdish and Shia coalition, Zubeidi said.
Sunni leaders are angry over the results of the polls, claiming they were rigged, but they have committed themselves to talks on a new coalition government.
So they're being realistic, an uncommon trait in that part of the world.
One of their demands, which they say is negotiable, is for a Sunni to become the new president. That would set up a clash with the Kurds, who now hold the post.
Informal talks between the Shia Alliance and the Accordance Front began this week. The Sunni parties say they will take a decision next week on whether finally to join the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006
12:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[19 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One of their demands, which they say is negotiable, is for a Sunni to become the new president
Still gotta be in charge. Anything less is unacceptable.
by Jay Nordlinger, National Review EFL'd from his "Impromptus" column.
. . . As Merkel sits in the Congress Center, waiting to speak, she could not look more unassuming. A bit drab, very ordinary a bit of a hausfrau. But when she opens her mouth, she reveals a formidable intellect, and a good deal of heart.
I'm getting ahead of myself, just a little. I want to record that, when Klaus Schwab father of the World Economic Forum introduces Merkel, he states that she has been coming to Davos since 1993, after she joined the cabinet of Chancellor Kohl. At the time, she was a "Young Global Leader of Tomorrow" that is a category here in Davos. "And here you are today, as leader of your country!" exclaims Schwab.
The theme of Merkel's speech, essentially, is freedom. She sounds like a woman who grew up in a Communist country (which she did). Great chunks of her speech are thoroughly Reaganite, or Thatcherite. Heretofore, my impression of Merkel has been that she is a bit of what we, on the American right, would call a "squish." Sort of a German Nancy Johnson (congresswoman from Connecticut). But no: She certainly doesn't sound like that. At all.
Throughout her speech, she stresses the need for reform, and for flexibility, and for open-mindedness. In the past, Germany has been "paralyzed," she says, "by events and situations" and that's no good. She asks for "more freedom of movement, more leeway, more freedom of action." She says that "we have to remove obstacles, open windows, breathe deeply fresh air." Germans and Europeans "have to see risks as opportunities, rather than hazards."
Not that she's a wild-eyed libertarian, mind you: "We are not exempt from responsibility," and the state has a strong role to play. But the individual the creative individual "must have the liberty to take action."
She says that, "as I prepared this speech," she thought of her predecessor, "the father of the social market economy": Ludwig Erhard. He knew that freedom and responsibility required order. He wanted men and women to have the freedom to pursue their own destinies, with a state allowing them to do that.
And get a load of this, folks: This new European leader, Merkel, says that she believes in "the mature citizen," able to think for himself, and take care of himself.
And people have always feared change, such as when society changed from an agricultural one to an industrial one. And now we are undergoing another change: to a "knowledge society," meaning that we have to "rethink."
This may sound Simple Simon to you, but it seems somewhat revolutionary out of a European leader's mouth.
Merkel says that "we have too few young people," and that Germany and other European countries are saddling future generations with debt also "narrowing the room for investment and development," which is "morally indefensible."
Morally indefensible!
The economic environment must be congenial to the entrepreneur. "Increasing freedom has always led to better development in Germany." For decades, the country has bent under "overly rigid regulation," and "we must become more flexible now." Problem is, "we're binding, fettering, enormous energies in Germany," out of a social fear.
And you will especially enjoy this, I believe: "It is difficult for politicians to dismantle something they have created." Remember what conservatives said in Reagan's Washington, in the 1980s? We said that the capital had its own Brezhnev Doctrine: Once a program or agency is established, it's forever, irreversible.
Merkel: "We must get away from the idea that a directive is in place for all time, and must never be reconsidered" because such stubbornness must "lead to greater insecurity for Europe."
And here is a very simple and beautiful, and true statement from this daughter of East Germany: "Freedom is an elementary good for mankind." Later, she mentions that "I did not expect to live in a free society before I reached the age of retirement." And so she is and not just living in one, leading it.
Toward the end of her speech, she talks about James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. "Two hundred years ago, he said that the most important thing in life is to invent." Where is this invention today? Merkel says that "we Germans" built the first computer, introducing the computer age. But "when I look at Microsoft, when I look at Google I see that we haven't participated in" the ongoing revolution. And "this is a painful recognition."
Merkel enunciates a kind of credo (and I paraphrase, slightly): "I want to use my own strength, take on the risks of my own life, captain my own fate and you, the state, must see to it that I'm in a position to do that." She continues: "The task of politics is to shape conditions in which people can have hope." Europe must junk a "protectionist point of view," looking instead to "competition that fosters the best ideas within the framework of the creative imperative."
And "The Creative Imperative," as I've noted, is Klaus Schwab's theme for the Annual Meeting this year.
Whew.
The applause for Merkel is not thunderous, but significantly, I think it is sustained. Hundreds of people just don't want to stop clapping. Schwab has Merkel stand up again, and acknowledge this applause rather like a conductor encouraging a soloist.
Then, Schwab facilitates a brief exchange between the German chancellor and two businessmen from America: Henry A. McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, and Michael Dell, of Dell Computers. McKinnell praises Merkel's "tone," saying that it is "frankly overdue in Germany," and in the rest of Europe. He says that creativity should be rewarded. You know, "it's okay to reward creativity" you don't have to stifle it, to say nothing of punish it.
Merkel, of course, couldn't agree more.
At the close of the session, Schwab asks Dell to give Merkel one piece of advice what is the one piece of advice he would impart, if he had the chance? (And he does.) Dell thinks for a moment and says, "You shouldn't earn as much when you're not working as when you're working." (We use the word "earn" loosely, please understand.) Merkel smiles, concurring: "Yes, yes: You have to have more when you work than when you don't. This principle isn't always applied in Germany, and that means we've had no real incentive." All the while, Merkel has been speaking in German. But at the end here, she smiles at Dell and says in English: "Good advice."
Ladies and gentlemen, this has been an amazing performance. Again, all of this may sound elementary to you but it's astounding, in the context of Davos, and of "Old Europe" generally. As a (right-leaning) buddy of mine remarks, Merkel, in her speech, said "freedom" about a hundred times. And she was amazingly self-critical critical of her own country, critical of countries that have pursued a similar path. She didn't blame America once, for anything. There was no self-pity, no excuse-making, no self-congratulation. No resentment, no whining, no petulance. Just clear, sweet thought.
Watch this lady, and see if she can get creaking European machinery moving, just a bit. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
01/28/2006
12:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
From our friends at Ah Jeebus
North Korea has warned of nuclear war and has vowed to strengthen its deterrent forces, as it demanded that Washington show evidence backing its allegation that the communist regime is counterfeiting US money. North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said: "Dark clouds of a nuclear war are hanging low over the Korean Peninsula."
"The ever-more frantic moves of the US to ignite a new war against (North Korea) would only compel it ... to bolster its deterrent for self-defence in every way," it said in a commentary carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.
The North's comments on Saturday follow a South Korea-US agreement this month giving American troops more flexibility in the South. The North said the pact was aimed at preparing for war.
Also on Saturday, the North dismissed US accusations of counterfeiting and other illicit activities like drug trafficking. "The nature and mission of (North Korea) do not allow such things as bad treatment of the people, counterfeiting and drug trafficking to happen in it," KCNA deadpanned said.
A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan also urged Washington to prove its allegation that North Korea is counterfeiting US currency. The Choson Sinbo newspaper said: "If there is suspicion and clear evidence as claimed by the United States, (the US) can present it and prove (it)." The United States "continues to leak plausible information but the reality is that there is nothing to confirm the fact objectively," it said. Other than its plausibility, of course.
And the nuke clock takes another 'coupla ticks forward.
#5
Must really suck to be irrelevant. I think that they are upset with all the attention that Iran is getting and nobody paying any attention to the them. Oh, so ronery. With the rest of the world throttling their drug and weapons sales, the only way for them to get dollars are to roll their own.
NEWPORT, Tenn. (AP) -- When agents swooped in last year with helicopters and machine guns in a raid on what was said to be the nation's largest illegal cockfighting pit, they shined new light on a tradition of good ol' boy vice in aptly named Cocke County. Moonshine, hookers and drug dealing had for decades been as much a part of the landscape as the foggy haze that settles over the community of 35,000 in the Great Smoky Mountains, along the North Carolina state line.
"You could go to Cocke County years ago and you didn't have to look very far to find trouble," District Attorney Al Schmutzer said. He recalled a $20,000 contract on his head in the late 1970s for breaking up an interstate prostitution ring that served - then robbed - customers at a truck stop brothel so brazen it had no fuel pumps.
Last June's cockfighting bust - which netted 143 arrests, the seizure of $40,000 in cash and capture of 305 fighting roosters - blew the lid on a four-year federal and state probe that suggested the bad old days were back again - or may have never left. Agents returned in the ensuing months to make a series of barroom sweeps for video-poker machines, prostitution and other graft.
Five sheriff's officers and two Newport police sergeants are now charged with a variety of offenses. The crimes include money laundering, drug dealing, witness tampering, insurance scams, stealing money from illegal immigrants during a traffic stop and receiving stolen NASCAR merchandise. The accused include the sheriff's nephew, a chief deputy. Three of the lawmen have pleaded guilty.
Last week, Sheriff D.C. Ramsey, whose own record includes an overturned conviction for extorting money from drunken driving suspects three decades ago, said he was quitting because of a heart condition and "all the negative publicity about myself and Cocke County." Court papers filed unsealed just days before the sheriff's resignation said the FBI was looking into allegations that the sheriff and his nephew took payoffs to protect gambling.
Ramsey, who unlike two of his predecessors has not been charged with a crime, said in his resignation letter, "I think it would be in the best interest of myself and Cocke County, which I dearly love, to step aside now so some good things can be said about our county." His letter was submitted to County Mayor Iliff McMahan, a Cocke County native who lived for years in Washington and has been on a mission to boost the picturesque area's tourism potential and show it has more to offer than "moonshine, marijuana and chop shops."
Nothing torpedoed those efforts more than last year's cockfighting bust, when 100 state and federal agents swept into the Del Rio Cockfight Pit in Parrottsville. As many as 700 people from several states wagered as much as $3 million there on a single Saturday night.
Some considered the $400,000 raid overkill. Republican Rep. Bill Jenkins complained the FBI was wasting resources for fighting terrorism and methamphetamine production "on a thing like cockfighting." The blood sport that pits roosters in a fight to death with razor-sharp spurs is illegal in all states except New Mexico and Louisiana. However, it is only a misdemeanor in 16 states, including Tennessee, which downgraded it from a felony in 1990.
Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii's state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned.
The news shook the world of Rep. Blake Oshiro, who found out the designation was no longer official from Joel Itomura, a 6-year-old fish-loving son of a friend and constituent.
"I was really surprised," said Oshiro, who has drawn up a bill that would make humuhumunukunukuapuaa - also known as the rectangular triggerfish or "humuhumu" for short - the official state fish for the islands. The stubby-nosed, brightly striped and slightly aggressive little fish whose name few tourists even try to utter (it's pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah) is commonly believed to be the state's favorite. The fish figures into tourist trinkets, broadcast commercials and a much-beloved song about a little grass shack.
Much like its name, the fish's road to titlelessness is long and confusing. In 1984 the state Legislature asked the University of Hawaii and the Waikiki Aquarium to survey the public and come up with a candidate for the state fish. The humuhumu was swept into the spot in part through the support of school children who learned of the campaign through classroom projects.
Although the issue of the state fish would seem to come with little controversy, the method used to poll the public was questioned and lawmakers limited the designation to five years. No one told the public that the humuhumu's reign was over, so few knew anything had changed.
And the humuhumu has its opponents. State Rep. K. Mark Takai said he had objections to a similar bill a decade ago because many of his constituents were in favor of the oopu, a brownish, freshwater gobbie endemic to the islands, he said. The humuhumu is not unique to Hawaii, he said.
There is no lack of fish species specific to the islands. Thirteen species of wrass alone are found here and nowhere else in the world. But while humuhumu may call more than just Hawaii its home, it has a few undeniable attributes on its side - cuteness and unpalatability.
"Here's a cute little fish. It kind of looks like a pig and it squawks and everything," said Chuck Johnston, editor of Hawaii Fishing News. It's also a good candidate because no one eats a humuhumu, he said. Picking a popular game fish such as the ulua could be a problem if environmentalists push to protect the fish from fishermen, he said.
Johnston has asked Gov. Linda Lingle to give the fish the state title in perpetuity through an executive order. In her reply early last year, Lingle said that decision should instead be left to the public. She also pointed out that the humuhumu has not historically been held in very high regard, having been used by early Hawaiians as fuel for their fires, not their stomachs. While Johnston had originally advocated for the Pacific blue marlin two decades ago, his support now for the humuhumu is unwavering.
"The logical choice is the one that was already selected," Johnston said. "It has been there. He's been crowned."
THERE'S A PLACE IN HAWAII
THAT IS VERY DEAR TO ME
I AM HOMESICK AS CAN BE
WON'T YOU LISTEN TO MY PLEA?
I WANT TO GO BACK TO MY LITTLE GRASS SHACK IN KEALAKEKUA HAWAII
I WANT TO BE WITH ALL THE KANES AND WAHINES THAT I KNEW LONG AGO
I CAN HEAR OLD GUITARS A-PLAYING
ON THE BEACH AT HO'ONAUNAU
I CAN HEAR THE HAWAIIANS SAYING
"KOMO MAI NO KAUA IKA HALE WELAKAHAO"
IT WON'T BE LONG 'TIL MY SHIP WILL BE SAILING BACK TO KONA
A GRAND OLD PLACE THAT'S ALWAYS FAIR TO SEE.
I'M JUST A LITTLE HAWAIIAN AND A HOMESICK ISLAND BOY,
I WANT TO GO BACK TO MY FISH AND POI,
I WANT TO GO BACK TO MY LITTLE GRASS SHACK IN KEALAKEKUA, HAWAII
WHERE THE HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAA GOES SWIMMING BY
WHERE THE HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAA GOES SWIMMING BY
Video at link for your morning entertainment!
MIAMI -- Former Attorney General Janet Reno got up and sang Aretha Franklin's "Respect" at a Miami fundraiser Thursday night. The karaoke performance was caught on tape. Yes, it's painfully bad...
It happened at an event honoring the 10th anniversary of the Human Services Coalition. Proceeds went to help fight poverty.
Reno suffers from Parkinson's disease, but that hasn't stopped her public appearances. Recently, she gave speeches on law enforcement at the University of Iowa and Pennsylvania State University.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/28/2006 13:29
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Evan? Elians' british cousin? :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 14:00
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I've always held that Reno was a pathetic dupe -out of her element. Eric Holder, Jamie Gorelick, and the other Justice Deputies were the evil ones: sharp, no ethics, no truthtelling morals, and totally Clintonite
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 17:14
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Frank, yes Eric Holder, Jamie Gorelick et al were and are dirtbags, agreed.
But Janet was a key player and certainly enabled treason.
Janet did yomens work for Clintoons, AlGORE, Sandy Burglar etc. by quashing ChinaGate and more.
.....in a 19-page court filing yesterday, Reno said, ``There are no reasonable grounds to believe that further investigation is warranted'' into an allegation that Gore lied to investigators last year about how a Democratic media fund was financed.
..........
On the day Attorney General Janet Reno declined, as expected, to order an independent counsel investigation of Vice President Al Gore over campaign fund raising, a public-interest legal group filed an explosive, omnibus racketeering lawsuit against Gore, President Clinton, the Loral Corp. executives, John Huang and the Democratic National Committee over what has become known as the "China-gate" scandal.
..................
PRC
China National Aero-Technology Import-Export Corporation
46 supercomputers rated at 2,000 MTOPS and ABOVE
Uses for supercomputers include: design and testing of nuclear weapons; sophisticated weather forecasting; weapons optimization studies crucial for the efficient use of chemical and biological weapons; aerospace design and testing; creating and breaking codes; miniaturizing nuclear weapons; and finding objects on the ocean floor, including submarines.
In 1994, sophisticated telecommunications technology was transferred to a U.S.-Chinese joint venture called HUA MEI, in which the Chinese partner is an entity controlled by the Chinese military. This particular transfer included fiber optic communications equipment which is used for high-speed, secure communications over long distances. Also included in the package was advanced encryption software.
.....................
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown headed a trade mission to China. He is joined by Joseph Giroir and Bernard Schwartz. Schwartz is president of Loral Space and Communications.
......................
...Q. Your March 15th speech mentioned two major categories of technology that the Chinese were given: W-88 nuclear warhead capability and missile guidance technology. Has new information come to light about other formerly secret technology ending up in China?
A. Yes, we have learned that a great deal more of our once-secret technology has been compromised to China and other potential adversaries. The lost secrets include details about the neutron bomb, electromagnetic pulse weapons, re-entry vehicles, 50 years of information gathered from nuclear testing, every phase of nuclear weapon design, space radar capabilities, and even the procedures to simulate nuclear testing with computers. Also, data related to the use of other nuclear warheads such as the W-56, W-62, W-76, W-87 (for MX land-based missiles), and W-88 (for Trident submarine-based missiles). It is apparent that the ongoing cover-up of Chinas theft of nuclear secrets is one of the greatest national security scandals in American history. Secret files on virtually every technology used in the design of our nuclear arsenal have been compromised.
When it comes to buying souvenirs, anti-globalization activists have found a shopping paradise at the World Social Forum. From "Che" Gueverra T-shirts to books on "21-Century Socialism" and "Low-impact backpacking," Venezuela's street vendors are offering just about anything a leftist activist might want, eager to capitalize on the gathering of more than 60,000 people.
Any of the Che pics with mouse ears on them?
Activists are digging in their pockets for posters of Cuban President Fidel Castro or pins bearing photos of Vladimir Lenin and Colombian rebel leader Manuel Marulanda. Others are themselves selling handmade jewelry and political pamphlets to bankroll their trip to the Venezuelan capital.
A lucky few are snapping up talking dolls of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- the hero of this year's World Social Forum, an annual event timed to coincide with the market-friendly World Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In one street market, French activist Rene Villepin (who may or may not be a man) haggled with a vendor before paying $30 for the talking "Chavecito," or "Little Chavez." The doll sports the Venezuelan leader's signature red-beret and at the push of a button says: "It's your dream, it's your hope and it's your job to be free and equal."
"I usually buy only reading material at these types of events, but I had to have one," Villepin said, smiling.
Chavez's image and the slogans of his leftist government seem to be everywhere at the six-day forum, which has drawn anti-globalization activists, peace advocates, labor leaders and intellectuals from around the world. Many hunted for interesting trinkets, but others urged fellow attendees to avoid certain "imperialist" products, like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
In keeping with the event's distaste for corporate giants, forum organizers set up public computers running on the open-source operating system Linux, which unlike Microsoft's Windows is free, said Carlos Torres, a Montreal-based Chilean organizer.
I'm sure Bill Gates noticed.
The event brought out Venezuela's many part-time street vendors. Luis Escobar, a 38-year-old unemployed construction worker, was selling Chavez masks amid thousands of anti-war marchers during the forum's opening "anti-imperialist" demonstration. "They're going fast! They're going fast!" he called out to activists, holding up the mask which sold for $23. But privately he said he'd found few takers. "Nobody's buying," Escobar said in a low voice, adding that he opposes Chavez but doesn't mind capitalizing on the president's image.
Which is why Chavez is still around.
Hundreds of visitors from Europe, the United States and Latin America camped out in parks, some hawking their own items, from beaded necklaces to books on the Palestinian cause. Nestor Petrola, who came by bus from Argentina, offered copies of his "Worker's Weekly" newspaper in exchange for "a small contribution," or "whatever they can give." "It's not much, but it helps with travel costs," he said.
#2
those socialists are good marketers. They could make a fortune selling ice to eskimos. Everyone knows that their tonic to create utopia/cure baldness/enlarge breasts doesn't work, but they still make a fortune selling it.
#1
..I rarely agree with Mr. Peters about anything, but I have a chilling suspicion he's right on this one.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/28/2006 10:02
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The present confusion in the civilian mind and the true military mind respecting the purposes of armies and limits of warfare is attributable to many circumstances. Among them, no doubt, is the character of military history as it has commonly been written. Ordinary citizens are lacking in the raw experience of combat, or deficient in technical knowledge, and inclined to leave the compilation of military records to experts in such affairs. Writers on general history have tended to neglect the broader aspects of military issues; confining themselves to accounts of campaigns and battles, handled often in a cursory fashion, they have usually written on the wars of their respective countries in order to glorify their prowess, with little or no reference to the question whether these wars were conducted in the military way of high efficiency or in the militaristic way, which wastes blood and treasure.
Even more often, in recent times, general historians have neglected military affairs and restricted their reflections to what they are pleased to call the causes and consequences of wars; or they have even omitted them altogether. This neglect may be ascribed to many sources. The first is, perhaps, a recognition of the brutal fact that the old descriptions of campaigns are actually of so little value civilian and military alike. Another has been the growing emphasis on economic and social fields deemed normal and the distaste of economic and social historians for war, which appears so disturbing to the normal course of events. Although Adam Smith included a chapter on the subject of military defense in his Wealth of Nations as a regular part of the subject, modern economists concentrate on capital, wages, interest, rent, and other features of peaceful pursuits, largely forgetting war as a phase of all economy, ancient or modern. When the mention the subject of armies and military defense, these are commonly referred to as institutions and actions which interrupt the regular balance of economic life. And the third source of indifference is the effort of pacifists and peace advocates to exclude wars and military affairs from general histories, with the view to uprooting any military or militaristic tendencies from the public mind, on the curious assumption that by ignoring realties the realties themselves will disappear.
This lack of a general fund of widely disseminated military information is perilous to the maintenance of civilian power in government. The civilian mind, presumably concerned with the maintenance of peace and the shaping of policies by the limits of efficient military defense, can derive no instruction from acrimonious disputes between militarists, limitless in their demands, and pacifists, lost in utopian visions. Where the civilians fail to comprehend and guide military policy, the true military men, distinguished from the militarists, are also imperiled. For these the executioners of civilian will, dedicated to the preparation of defense and war with the utmost regard for efficiency, are dependent upon the former.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them. In so doing they inevitably find themselves associated with militaristic military men who demand all they can get merely for the sake of having it without reference to ends.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34.
#3
that's a really good article, don't miss page 2. I think he's waaaay too pessimistic and ignores what is going right - but here really captures what is going wrong.
Say what you want, but this is a holy war. It's Christ against Mohammed. It's the same exact fight, regardless of what "faith" you believe in. You either embrace the individual ideals of tolerance and forgiveness or you embrace blame and revenge. I know many Jews/atheists who adhere to Christ's teachings better than I.
Islamists/Elites say they are for tolerance and forgiveness but only they want to enforce that OTHERS to embody those traits. Practicing Christians try to dig deep to enforce it in themselves. I hate Joe Smoe because he hurt me in some way. God help me to forgive him v/s I hate Joe Smoe, I'm going to sabotage him to get even. You are on Christ's side of this battle if you think tolerance and forgiveness are something you, yourself have to dig deep for. You are on Mohammed's side if you think that tolerance and forgiveness are something "we all" (ie: others) need to embrace or something that needs laws and juries to enforce.
Age old battle - good v/s evil. Christ just had a better way of preventing the wars.
#4
The problem is neither a lack of will or of the limitations of technology. The problem is the wrong kind of technology.
To start with, if you examine the US Navy, the trend would seem to be that eventually we would have only one ship, of amazing technological advancement, and of immeasureable expense. But how impregnable is *any* ship? If we were to lose just that one, we would be helpless.
But seriously, how many of our highly advanced and expensive ships could we lose right now without compromising our ability to force project? A mere twenty or thirty?
In World War II, the US lost 5 aircraft carriers, 6 escort aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 70 destroyers, 11 destroyer escorts, and 52 submarines. Not including the rest of the ships:
http://www.navsource.org/Naval/losses.htm#bb
We right now have the largest navy in the world, but if that navy was degraded, with many ships lost, how quickly could they be replaced? As in WWII, could we "crank out" expendable combat vessels seemingly overnight, if our enemy did the same?
But from the straightforward to the ridiculous, what if our entire military paradigm, the preservation of as many enemy lives as possible, was turned on its head? That is, if we were forced into a war with an army of such immense size that we would have to cut them down like blades of grass?
China, for example, could theoretically field an army of perhaps 300 million men. And even equipped with swords and knives, how could we fight such an army?
300 million expendable men.
What monstrous state of affairs could lead to this is not the question. The questions is what to do, technologically, to overcome this problem?
#5
I think RP is wrong though I certainly respect his opinion. He ignores two simple facts: 1) the supply of suicide bombers is limited and 2) it isn't easy to increase that supply.
Consider the experience of the Paleo splodydopes. The men who groom and train the dopes to explode started running out of candidates, to the point that they had to bring into training women (they managed to find a way to square that with their beliefs), then children, then retarded children. As appealing as 72 virgins and the glory of being a shahid were, they couldn't convince the average Mahmoud to give up his pestilent life on earth and strap on a bomb.
We recognize the courage and honor of a Nathan Hale or a soldier who jumps on a live grenade because, in addition to the innate heroism and humanity, it is rare. Not many men or women will do that. Most of us want to live.
So too in the Muslim lands. The Qur'an may glorify death in jihad, but hundreds of millions of Muslims have declined the offer. They have better things to do.
So the supply of would-be suicide bombers is limited. Human nature comes into this, best typlified by the Arab notion of the 'strong horse'. That's another way of saying that most people want to be on the winning side. It's one thing to strap on a bomb in the belief that your action is going to mean something, and another to know that your side is getting its ass kicked, leaving you ONLY with the consolation of 72 virgins in the after-life. Sometimes who's winning and who isn't is unclear (WWII in early 1942, for example), but it becomes difficult to recruit suicide bombers when you're clearly losing (even the Japanese began to run short of kamikazes near the end of the war).
What's interesting to me in all this isn't how many young Muslims are willing to be suicide bombers, but how few. Their impact becomes magnified, at least psychologically and at least for a while, precisely because they are so few. Again, witness the response of Israel -- from shock to horror to grim determination and jocular humor. Did the Paleo splodydopes move the Israelis? At first, clearly yes, and the Oslo accords and the hand-wringing in Israel were evidence of that. Then the Israelis became hardened and elected a leader, Ariel Sharon, who decided to put an end to that nonsense. The result -- the Paleos are further away today from their goal of a 'Palestine' from the Jordan to the Med then they've ever been. Did suicide bombing work in Israel? Not any more.
And that's the problem I have with Mr. Peters. He assumes that the suicide bomber will always be effective, especially when used against a western, democratic state. The evidence says otherwise. We become hardened to terror -- witness the Brits during 'the Blitz' in 1940. Did the bombing of London force the Brits to knuckle under? Did the wave of V-1 and V-2 attacks in 1944 bring about a collapse in morale? Not hardly. The Brits became more determined than ever.
That will be the response of our country, and why, if suicide bombings and terrorist attacks continue, our country will not elect the hand-wringer, the cut-and-run politicans, and the quasi-socialists on the Democratic left. We aren't going to knuckle under, and we won't give power to those who will.
That will be reflected in our military. Perhaps the emphasis on developing high technology is wrong, but our soldiers and Marines have had no problem getting up close and personal with our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan. The combination of the two is a fearsome, lethal thing to behold, and something the Islamofascists still don't understand.
Mr. Peters misses it also.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006 12:41
Comments ||
Top||
#6
One of the worst things Peters has ever written. For one thing, he buries the conclusion in the middle of the article and then throws it away:
our revolution in military affairs appears more an indulgence than an investment. In the end, our enemies will not outfight us. We'll muster the will to do what must be done--after paying a needlessly high price in the lives of our troops and damage to our domestic infrastructure. We will not be beaten, but we may be shamed and embarrassed on a needlessly long road to victory.
Exactly the same can be written about any other war we have been forced into. We are not an inherently martial people. And peacetime defence expenditures in democracies have more to do with spreading appropriations to the maximum number of constituents than with military efficiency. But that's a minor issue by the time the drums begin to roll.
Peters also goes on to confuse the war of faith with Islam with a war of commerce with China.
Before 9/11 I thought China would be our next great adversary. But, I have come to realize that we are not destined to combat with China as we are with Islam. Just as the rational among us recognize we could not conquer the Chinese ("Never get involved in a land war in Asia"), so the rational in China recognize they could never conquer us. So we'll settle into trade tiffs with them while everybody gets rich and more Chinese and Americans become rational. For nothing makes a man so rational as profit.
But the war with Islam is an irrational war of faith versus toleration as best described in The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America. The Anglosphere has been fighting these wars since 1642. (That's about the time the Muslims started their losing streak.) The Anglosphere has yet to lose one, though they do like to make them close, at first. The Islamists have not studied our history anywhere near as much as we have studied theirs; had they done so, they would be treading with greater trepidation.
The Revolutionary hero relevant here is not Nathan Hale, but John Paul Jones, "I have not yet begun to figtht." But when we do begin to fight, the Islamists, full of futile faith, will face the implacable and remorseless foe of rationality and tolerance that, when left no other alternative, will fight for its life more viciously than any man of faith with far greater efficiency and lethality. We simply are not yet agreed that we have exhausted all the alternatives. When we are, the Islamist evil will be destroyed as utterly as fascism, slavery, bonapartism or divine right royalty. It is the length of time to reach this consensus that is so frustrating to Peters, and so many others, especially those who have seen the cost of delay. But that seems to be one of the requirements for the Anglosphere to reach its full potential for destructiveness. Whether any Muslims or Islam survive this destruction will be inconsequential by then.
#7
The Islamists have not studied our history anywhere near as much as we have studied theirs; had they done so, they would be treading with greater trepidation.
good points above. But I disagree with this point that you make, Nemble. The number one rule of warfare is know your enemy. The point he touches on that I think we ignore at our own peril is the part where he talks about the similarity between Islamists and "elites".
I disagree with him about technology, but I think we can all agree that if we are to lose this battle, it will not be lost on the battlefield. We could conclude it tomorrow with the technology we have today. But it is indeed a test of wills - and we have not proved that we have the will to win it. This war is not like any other we have ever fought. Our enemy's don't have defined uniforms or characteristics.
We are fighting anti-Americanism. With the media, elites, communists and Islamists all working against us, we could lose this battle much the same way we lost in Vietnam. This is much more like a civil war than a battle against Islamists. Remember, if only 600,000 votes in Ohio went the other way, the world would be a very different place today. And all of that technology could be in the hands of John Kerry and thus the UN. And that could easily happen in a few years.
We don't know our enemy. And worse, too many are terrified to get to know him. Good for Peters for approaching the subject. All who pride yourself in being above the discussion of faiths in this war are kidding yourself. The topic terrifies people. Mention it and you can see people scramble from the room like cockroaches when you switch on the light. It's as if to discuss the matter, you will be mugged by a group of blue haired grannies, cheered on Pat Roberts and dragged to an altar. All I can say is that we better get over that if we want to win.
You can't fight a war if you can't talk about the reasons it is being fought. Good for Peters for having the guts to discuss it. Nobody else does.
#8
This war is not like any other we have ever fought.
I couldn't disagree more. The weapons are different but how different are the Islamists from the communists, fascists, slave owners and divine right kings? No anti-Americans there. Men of faith and fanatics all. And where was the unity of purpose among the Anglosphere natins before their backs were pressed to the wall? No, there's far too much deja vu again.
Ultimately, we don't need to know our enemy. We only need to know how to fight him and destroy him. We do not seek to conquer our enemies. We do not seek to convert them. We seek to utterly destroy them until they unconditionally surrender. Then the understanding and conversion begins.
#9
The Islamists have not studied our history anywhere near as much as we have studied theirs; had they done so, they would be treading with greater trepidation.
Most people in the "west" have neither studied Islamic history nor Western history.
And they are most of the way down the road towards convincing themselves that the US is the second coming of Nazi Germany and the suicide bombers are all brave heroes.
OTOH, while it's all fine and good for Col. Peters to point this out, and that technological solutions _in general_ may be the wrong approach to the problem, he appears to shy away from what would be needed to counteract the whole passive-aggressive "death of a thousand cuts" approach the axis of chickenshit wishes to inflict on us.
Industrial policy? Import tarriffs? That we stop pretending we can have free trade with people who still approach foreign policy as "the game of princes" and think they're playing Civilization?
That we actually apply the sort of press controls we had in WW2, or some fraction thereof? Most of the ignorant retards in what passes for the citizenry of the West (i.e. most of them) would take this as evidence of our absolute evil.
Col. Peters maintains that we don't have a technical solution to suicide bombers attacking our troops, and that the likely response on their part to such a development would be to target more civilians.
(Actually, that part has already happened, and groups that kill many more Iraqi civilians than US soldiers are lionized as "freedom fighters" while the US is blamed for the deaths of civilians. And the people doing the lionizing go to bed at night not only telling themselves that they're more moral than everyone else, but that they're more intelligent as well. And we accept it.)
Posted by: Phil ||
01/28/2006 14:09
Comments ||
Top||
#10
The weapons are different but how different are the Islamists from the communists, fascists, slave owners and divine right kings? No anti-Americans there.
I believe you have missed my point. First of all, I resent the comment about "converting people". I never said that and to imply that was my goal is exactly the reason that no one can discuss this in a rational manner. Besides, I think it is the good Muslim people themselves who do understand the enemy who will ultimately help us win this war. That's how it is working out in Iraq.
Furthermore, my point is that - it IS the same as communist, Islamism, fascism etc. It is dejavu all over again. It always is. There is a Satan (take your pick) that needs to be fought against. Have faith and fight for me only then can utopia be achieved. It's always the same.
In THIS war that "we" are fighting, it is "anti-Americanism". We could quibble over the semantics of that, buy I feel certain you know what I mean and I'd like to spare 6000 words describing exactly what I mean.
Moose made the point about how we don't know Islam, and I'm making the point that many war planners don't understand faith - be it communism, fascism, Islam etc. Not only do they not understand it - they are terrified to discuss it.
I think you do need to know your enemy - especially in this war, where our own elites are on exactly the same page as the Islamists.
Peters is right. But the manifestations of machine enabling warriors is awesome. Extremes on either side of the spectrum is dangerous.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/28/2006 14:34
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Moose made the point about how we don't know Islam, and I'm making the point that many war planners don't understand faith - be it communism, fascism, Islam etc. Not only do they not understand it - they are terrified to discuss it.
I think you do need to know your enemy - especially in this war, where our own elites are on exactly the same page as the Islamists.
Precisely. You can find people on "our" side of the conflict at mosques in the Muddle East and people on "their" side of the conflict at your local branch of the Anglican Church.
Now, how do you draw the civilizational dividing lines?
Posted by: Phil ||
01/28/2006 14:46
Comments ||
Top||
#13
From the article:
"We have reached the point (as evidenced by the first battle of Falluja) where the global media can overturn the verdict of the battlefield. We will not be defeated by suicide bombers in Iraq, but a chance remains that the international media may defeat us. Engaged with enemies to our front, we try to ignore the enemies at our back--enemies at whom we cannot return fire." (Emphasis mine)
"Cannot" would be more aptly replaced by "are not yet willing to." I'm beginning to wonder whether it is even possible for us to win the war against Islamic extremism without doing something about that domestic enemy sniping at our backs.
And I'm beginning to suspect the answer is "no."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/28/2006 15:08
Comments ||
Top||
#14
This war is not like any other we have ever fought
For insightful reading of events which have meaning today may I recommend, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian 1866-1891 by Robert M. Utley. The perspective of a small and overtaxed military establishment conducting operations in a demanding environment, physically and politically, while bringing civilization to the vastness of the west can be related to the contemporary operations on the world stage today. Of particular note would be chapters three: The Problem of Doctrine, four: The Army, Congress, and the People, and eighteen: Mexican Border Conflicts 1870-81.
Some excerpts:
Chapter 3: The Problem of Doctrine. Three special conditions set this mission apart from more orthodox military assignments. First, it pitted the army against an enemy who usually could not be clearly identified and differentiated from kinsmen not disposed at the moment to be enemies. Indians could change with bewildering rapidity from friend to foe to neutral, and rarely could one be confidently distinguished from another...Second, Indian service placed the army in opposition to a people that aroused conflicting emotions... And third, the Indians mission gave the army a foe unconventional both in the techniques and aims of warfare... He fought on his own terms and, except when cornered or when his family was endangered, declined to fight at all unless he enjoyed overwhelming odds...These special conditions of the Indian mission made the U.S. Army not so much a little army as a big police force...for a century the army tried to perform its unconventional mission with conventional organization and methods. The result was an Indian record that contained more failures than successes and a lack of preparedness for conventional war that became painfully evident in 1812, 1846, 1861, and 1898.
Chapter 4. The Army, Congress, and the People. Shermans frontier regulars endured not only the physical isolation of service at remote border posts; increasingly in the postwar years they found themselves isolated in attitudes, interests, and spirit from other institutions of government and society and, indeed from the American people themselves...Reconstruction plunged the army into tempestuous partisan politics. The frontier service removed it largely from physical proximity to population and, except for an occasional Indian conflict, from public awareness and interest. Besides public and congressional indifference and even hostility, the army found its Indian attitudes and policies condemned and opposed by the civilian officials concerned with Indian affairs and by the nations humanitarian community.
#15
Now imagine this if the Indians had hundreds of billions of petrodollars' worth of profits each year, and a population base larger than the US, and BTW, the US is just another fish in a very short-communication-time 5 billion person pond...
Posted by: Phil ||
01/28/2006 16:35
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Now imagine this if the Indians had hundreds of billions of petrodollars' worth of profits each year, and a population base larger than the US, and BTW, the US is just another fish in a very short-communication-time 5 billion person pond...
First of all let's remind that Muslims outnumber Americans only four or five to one. And that Americans are far, far more letal. In addition theree are lots of populations who are only nominally Muslims , or even who are increasinly seeing Islam as an instrument of Arab domination. An effort of propaganda and some support could let them to reject Islam. Our main weakness is that are not fighting the propaganda war and in fact we are letting people see America through Michael Moore's and Chomski's drivel
SEVERELY EFL'd, but worth the read by a genuine expert in the field.
By James Oberg
NBC News space analyst
Special to MSNBC
Updated: 11:25 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2006
James Oberg
NBC News space analyst
HOUSTON - Twenty years ago, millions of television viewers were horrified to witness the live broadcast of the space shuttle Challenger exploding 73 seconds into flight, ending the lives of the seven astronauts on board. And they were equally horrified to learn in the aftermath of the disaster that the faulty design had been chosen by NASA to satisfy powerful politicians who had demanded the mission be launched, even under unsafe conditions. Meanwhile, a major factor in the disaster was that NASA had been ordered to use a weaker sealant for environmental reasons. Finally, NASA consoled itself and the nation with the realization that all frontiers are dangerous and to a certain extent, such a disaster should be accepted as inevitable.
At least, that seems to be how many people remember it, in whole or in part. Thats how the story of the Challenger is often retold, in oral tradition and broadcast news, in public speeches and in private conversations and all around the Internet. But spaceflight historians believe that each element of the opening paragraph is factually untrue or at best extremely dubious. They are myths, undeserving of popular belief and unworthy of being repeated at every anniversary of the disaster.
The flight, and the lost crewmembers, deserve proper recognition and authentic commemoration. Historians, reporters, and every citizen need to take the time this week to remember what really happened, and especially to make sure their memories are as close as humanly possible to what really did happen. If that happens, here's the way the mission may be remembered:
1. Few people actually saw the Challenger tragedy unfold live on television.
2. The shuttle did not explode in the common definition of that word.
3. The flight, and the astronauts lives, did not end at that point, 73 seconds after launch.
4. The design of the booster, while possessing flaws subject to improvement, was neither especially dangerous if operated properly, nor the result of political interference.
5. Replacement of the original asbestos-bearing putty in the booster seals was unrelated to the failure.
6. There were pressures on the flight schedule, but none of any recognizable political origin.
7. Claims that the disaster was the unavoidable price to be paid for pioneering a new frontier were self-serving rationalizations on the part of those responsible for incompetent engineering management the disaster should have been avoidable.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/28/2006
08:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does'nt matter if it was live or not. 73 seconds or 303 seconds. On that day 20 years ago we lost some hero's. I had just Ets'D from the 82d and was at the reserve center to watch it depart. We all just stood there and cried. Dangerous profession and brave Americans, God bless them. I was glad to see at the end of it all we continued to move forward with the program.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/28/2006 17:05
Comments ||
Top||
#1
..Gawd, that's grim. And sadly, probably right.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/28/2006 8:10
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd like to note that he begins by blaming the right, twice. First that it isn't strong enough against Iran, and second that it was too strong against Iraq. That is the Hillary Clinton argument.
From thence, his conclusions and formulations are typical of the left: "Let's go in there and have a quick, 50-minute war that resolves everything to emotional satisfaction, and still have time for the commercial break."
Today, this is how the left views foreign policy, as something episodic, like an hour-long television show. At the beginning of a show, everything is exactly as it was at the start of last week's show, then someone enters the President's office and says "Mr President, we have a problem!"
Then he must solve the problem in the next hour, before the audience gets bored. Once solved, however, it is solved for good. Except next week, everything is back to normal, last week's episode is forgotten, and some new problem is on the horizon.
I know it is a surreal comparison, but how far from the truth? Madelyn Albright seemed to believe that the solution to all problems was to send a dozen US Soldiers or Marines somewhere to just stand there, uselessly, without support. She sent such deployments to every corner of the world to accomplish nothing. One of the first acts of George W. Bush was to recall all of these personnel back to their units.
Now, compare this with what the right has been doing for the past year, that is, preparing for a possible war. The administration has had the Pentagon working overtime in preparation; it has had the State Department working triple time to avoid war, if at all possible.
All quiet planning, minimal hoo-hah and emotional gratification. Preparing for a war that could last two years of bitter conflict, result in horrific damage to the world's economy, and become an opportunity for every villain in the world to make mischief because of the distraction.
There is no joy in this, no thrill, no great emotional satisfaction with tidying up all of the loose ends. It is all harsh reality, death and destruction, but always with the mind to stop worse death and destruction--saving not only the lives of as many of our people as possible, but as many enemy lives, civilian and military, as possible.
And where is the left while this is all taking place? Skiing in Davos. Log-jamming the congress as much as possible. Whining that our troops are still in Iraq, and that we should leave the Iraqis "to fight their civil war", to quote John Murtha.
#3
Did we read the same article? The one I read ended:
Because in the end, preparation for war, by which I mean not military feasibility planning, or political and diplomatic manoeuvres but a psychological readiness, a personal willingness on all our parts to bear the terrible burdens that it will surely impose, may be our last real chance to ensure that we can avoid one.
While not Churchillian, this doesn't sound to me like someone preparing for a 50 minute war.
#4
My greatest fear is the "unsigned" attack. What do we do if a city is destroyed and nobody takes responsibility?
We can, after the fact, identify the source of the nuclear material used to make a bomb. We should tell Iran that any strike from a weapon built with Iranian material will be considered an attack by Iran. It would give the mullahs one reason to keep track of things.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
01/28/2006 9:30
Comments ||
Top||
#6
War? We were at war with Japan until the A-bomb fix. Then we had peace by nuclear-diplomacy.
The Bush regime isn't going to take Iran's genocidal threats sitting down. And there are no large preparations going on. Add our overwhelming technological advantage, and we can do exactly to Iranians what we did to the Japanese. And the latter is a friendly, de-militarized state.
Does anyone here have a problem with nuclear-diplomacy? Look, we would use limited resources and would not put ground troops at risk. And the practice would hardly be characterizable as bullying or extortion, given Ahmadnutbar's genocidal threats. The Mullahs talk tough, but they have nothing to back it up.
Grunt-speak from the Officer's Club website, reveals fear of a do-nothing response. As much as I admire those guys; that CAN'T happen.
http://officersclub.blogspot.com/
Check out this book if you can find it:
The Winning Weapon : The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950 (ISBN: 0691022860)
Herken, Gregg
NUCLEAR-DIPLOMACY: who's with me? Remember, little combat risk, abject surrender from the lowest form of human life to walk the earth. The Chinese get to keep their projects intact.
#7
HA! I pointed this out yesterday - or was it this morning. The new dem talking points are that Bush was not strong enough. This change in talking points came out right after the poll that 57% (not adjusted for usual poll manipulations) support war against Iran.
I guess they are going to try to make the point that Hillary will be stronger. Good luck with that. Best counter argument I've heard to the argument was Newt on Fox. He said (something like) they supported the war in Iraq and then changed their minds once we were over there. Who is to say they won't do it again.
Expect more articles/talk that you agree with from dems supporting the war. But don't be a sucker.
#8
..if a city is destroyed and nobody takes responsibility?
There's no "if" here. No one would be dumb enough to admit either guilt or complicity in any sort of attack with a small nuclear device on an American city, even unhinged idiots like the Iranian leadership.
#9
Baker is right, but he underestimates the American citizenry if he thinks it doesn't anticipate such an event.
But Ledeen is right too. Michael has long contended a regional confict and he is right: a Syria-Iran-SoLe/PA conflict, major and frequent terrorism events on Western soil.
Better to kick the door open soon rather than increase the probability of WMD.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/28/2006 18:32
Comments ||
Top||
Hamas' political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal declared on Saturday that his group will not disarm and that he was ready to form an army to defend the Palestinian people from aggression. hilarious. all that punditry about hamas reconsidering its stance, negotiating, renouncing terror, recognizing Israel's right to exist, etc lasted about a day and a half!
"We are willing to form an army like every country ... an army to defend our people against aggression," Mashaal told reporters from his base in Damascus, the Syrian capital. I guess this makes it easier for the EU and the US to cut off funding. After all, they'd be funding an army of terrorists if they didn't. (and for all you EU readers, that's a bad thing). Only problem is, their army will be supplied by Syria and Iran. But those countries can't provide sustained financial support.
Mashaal indicated that his group would continue attacks on Israeli civilians as long as Palestinian civilians were targeted by Israel. paleo civilians are NEVER targeted, though. paleo terrorists hide among them, and civilian deaths are part of their calculations. Besides, one attack on Israel by a hamas army is an act of war.
"As long as we are under occupation then resistance is our right," he said.
Mashaal's call comes in staunch contrast with international calls on Hamas to abolish its armed wing following its landslide victory in the Palestinian elections. can't wait for al-guardian and al-bbc to spin this one.
"Resistance is a legitimate right that we will practice and protect. Our presence in the legislature will strengthen the resistance," he said. and they lose the protection of being the opposition party. Now it's the government of the paleos directly attacking Israel. Popcorn time!!!
"If people raised the issue of targeting civilians, we said and we say that when our enemy stops targeting civilians we will abide by that," Mashaal said.
Asked if a truce that ended at the end of 2005 will be renewed, Mashaal said "it results were not encouraging." Mashaal then outlined Hamas' three goals: Reform of the Palestinian authority, destroying sustaining its resistance to Israel and "arranging the Palestinian home."
He said Hamas wanted a partnership with other Palestinian factions and called for the world to respect the radical organization's landslide victory in parliamentary elections.
Mashaal said he was in contact with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. "We will reach a partnership formula, and we extend our hand to everyone." He said no Palestinian faction would be sidelined. Hamas won 76 seats of the 132-member parliament in this week's election.
Mashaal attacked U.S. and Israeli opposition to the Hamas victory, saying the "world raised the slogan of democracy and now it should respect the results of democracy. If you want to punish the Palestinian people for practicing democracy then the American administration should punish Americans for choosing President (George W.) Bush." hey. we respect democracy. we just don't have to agree with the choice or fund it. you're the duly elected leaders. go lead, asswipe, and shut up.
He declared Hamas' determination to reshape the Palestinian authority, coining the phrase: "Hamas succeeded in resistance and it will succeed in reforms." In an apparent reference to the ruling Fatah Party, Mashaal warned those "who might try block the work because they are out of power. They are the ones who will be responsible."
Mashaal vowed to work for Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, which, he said, numbered 9,000.
Ghazi Hamad, one of Hamas' top ideologues, said on Saturday that Hamas may consider forming a government of technocrats with no connection to the radical Islamic movement, in a bid to relieve some of the international pressure on the group. "We want a government for the Palestinian people, and if we couldn't do that then there are lots of options, one of which is a technocrat government," Hamad said.
#5
Somebody better let them know that, unlike the sky, people you shoot at will usually shoot back. Probably a helluva lot more accurately and with bigger firepower then these clowns.
#6
I see more locations being booked for our DOD world tour. Been everywhere else, why not Palestine? This is getting old.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/28/2006 13:30
Comments ||
Top||
#7
great - a psychopathic F Troop....should be just as successful, eh, Abu Agorn?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 13:48
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Hey Clinton, Rabin -- all that "peace process" crap you pushed is really bringing great results, huh? I hope they figured those Nobel prizes were worth all the bloodshed. Those two idiot do-gooders are (and will continue to be) the cause of more death and misery than I can contemplate. The so-called "occupation" was the best thing that ever happened to those Paleo savages. Some youngsters out they might not know that there was a time, not so long ago, when the Paleos were policed (by Israelis), employed (by Israelis), and not allowed to own guns (for obvious reasons). And everyone was a lot happier (except Yasser Arafat, Clinton, the UN, and some Euros).
#10
Fatah will not willingly give up their monthly "take" from corruption and gangs. Hamas will want their share now that they're on top. Win-win if they slit each others' throats to the last Paleo. Point is - there is no army, just uniforms for some
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 15:59
Comments ||
Top||
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - Mexican border journalists, whose colleagues have turned up missing or dead after covering drug violence, say they are censoring themselves out of fear of being killed...Nuevo Laredo newspaper editors say they have been omitting the names of some victims of violence after drug traffickers have called and threatened reporters if the names are published. Or sometimes, they add, they simply don't run the story.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said Friday that Russia would beef up its early warning system by building a new radar station. "This is an important question of national security," Ivanov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying. "Not having modern stations, we simply will go blind."
Ivanov made his comments on his return from Azerbaijan, where he visited the Gabala radar station, which was built by the Soviet military to track missiles in the southern hemisphere. After the Soviet collapse, Azerbaijan which shares a border with Iran to the south grudgingly allowed Russia to continue using the station, which is considered a key part of Russias early warning system, Associated Press points out.
Russia also uses radars in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Ivanovs comments suggested Russia is searching for a replacement for the radars in Azerbaijan and Ukraine to track the south. "Technologies are becoming more sophisticated. So are radars," Ivanov was quoted by Interfax as saying. "Whereas large stations were built previously, modern technology allows us to make such projects less costly." "Of course we trust our Iranian friends. This is just a routine upgrade."
#2
Some of the Russian "radar" installations are 60 acres or larger, especially the latest phased array sites. The radar in Azerbaijan is 400 feet long and about 250 feet wide at the base. It takes a medium-sized nuclear power station to power it. I'm sure the Azerbaijanis would like to control the power station, if nothing else.
I can't blame the Russians for wanting a new radar facing Iran - they've "empowered" the Iranians with nuclear capability, but have no control over the mad mullahs. Place the new radar at the head of the Caspian, pointing due south. That way, the Ruskies can both watch the Caspian AND any missiles rising from Iran - at least, until the US gets tired of being threatened and takes the entire mullocracy to task.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/28/2006 15:47
Comments ||
Top||
U.S. President George W. Bush told hereditary MP Saad Hariri, the son of assassinated former Premier Rafik Hariri, Friday that one of his country's priorities is allowing Lebanon to be "free of foreign influence, free of Syrian intimidation, and free to chart its own course." Bush - the jewel in the crown meeting of Hariri's visit to the U.S. capital - told the young MP allowing "Lebanon's democracy to be able to reach its full potential will be very important for the region."
After the meeting at the White House's Oval office, Bush said: "There's no doubt in my mind, with the focused effort of the free world ... we will be able to achieve this objective." Bush also said he and Hariri discussed putting together a global donor's conference to raise funds to help Lebanon. Hariri told reporters the president had expressed support for a donor conference, but that no date has been set.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
Operations to disrupt insurgency activity were just one topic of discussion at the latest Baghdad briefing here Jan. 26. Joint efforts by Iraqi and Coalition Forces in addition to contributions by Coalition air efforts continue to help deter terrorism in the area. Local leaders near Forward Operating Base Kalsu also met to discuss community concerns.
Operation Koa Canyon in Al Anbar province has denied Al-Qaeda in Iraq safe havens, munitions and funding, according to Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multi-National Force - Iraq spokesman, "And with great success," he said. Combined forces have found and destroyed more than 4,300 artillery and mortar rounds, rockets, and mines; 267 kilograms (590 pounds) of explosive powder, 10,000 rounds of various types of ammunition (ranging from small-arms to tank main gun rounds).
Many such operations were carried out with support from Coalition Air Force assets, including tactical air and logistical support. Of the 1,565 sorties flown last week, 421 were tactical air support, 122 were reconnaissance and more than 1,000 were logistical. Close air support was called in 21 times and expended "tactical munitions 13 times with precision guided munitions 70 percent of the time to avoid unnecessary collateral damage," Lynch said. Coalition air forces flew 17,000 sorties in 2005.
Insurgency groups consist of terrorists and foreign fighters, Iraqi rejectionists and Saddamists. Disruption of insurgency activity by Iraqi rejectionists is contributing to the degradation of Al Qaeda in the area, according to Maj. Gen Lynch. "In the last several months, six major leaders in the Zarqawi network have been killed by local insurgents. The people of Iraq are saying Enough, we will not tolerate terrorists here."
Continued on Page 49
The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed. The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun. "There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."
Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria." Democrats have made the absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a theme in their criticism of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in 2003. And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong..."
#1
Heard this guy on Fox say they used a 747 to move the stuff. I seriously doubt they have a 747 and that we'd miss it when it makde a puddle jump like this. Makes me skeptical of the guy, though it's pretty clear Syria was involved in hiding the WMD.
#2
Weren't commercial flights allowed into Baghdad until the war officially kicked off? With a bit of complicity on the part of any of the Middle East's national airlines this might have been possible if unlikely.
#5
And the Iraqis had plenty of trucks, and good roads to Syria, and willing partners on the other end. We don't need to invoke a high-tech solution to this; the low-tech solution works very well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006 13:01
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Debka was all over this from the beginning. I happen to believe it...but that's irrelevant.
However, if it is true...why in Heaven's name aren't we holding a hammer over Syria? We (apparently) know the 3 main locations...2 in the Syrian desert and 1 in the Bekka valley. You would think we would allow Baby Assad to trade his life for at least 1 stash. That's the sticking point with me. If we really believe it's there...why haven't we moved on it militarily, or politically?
A day after its sweeping victory in Palestinian legislative elections, pressure mounted on Hamas to renounce violence and accept the existence of archfoe Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would soon ask Hamas to form the next government. Supporters of his Fatah party fought a gunbattle with Hamas activists.
Just a little exchange of political opinions, mind you...
Leaders of Arab and Islamic countries urged Hamas to talk peace with Israel and called on the West to accept the Hamas poll win. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a call to Abbas, urged Fatah and Hamas to work together for peace and an independent state. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on the new government to affirm its commitment to an Arab peace proposal made in 2002. It offered peace with Israel in exchange for the Jewish state withdrawing to territory it held before the 1967 Middle East war. Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, he also cautioned Israel against using the Hamas victory as a pretext for halting the peace process.
He's confusing "pretext" with "reason." A pretext is an excuse you use to do something for which there's actually another reason.
King Abdallah of Jordan called for a rapid return to Middle East peace talks.
"Into the peace processor wit' yez!"
Turkey offered to act as an intermediary between Israel and the Palestinians. The 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference also may perhaps take on an important role, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Davos.
If so, it'll be the first important thing it's ever done...
He called on Hamas to recognize Israel, hand over its weapons to the Palestinian security forces and move away from extremism toward a middle ground. And he called on Israel to accept both the election results and Hamas role in the new government.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
When getting stabbed in the back is what you really want, call Tapyyip Erdogan.
#2
It offered peace with Israel in exchange for the Jewish state withdrawing to territory it held before the 1967 Middle East war.
It's entirely up to Israel to decide whether this is something worth looking into, but quite frankly, in view of how Israel came to occupy all the territory they did, this offer of "peace" and its conditions are an insult.
A journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single step, or so the Chinese tell me. On the other hand, if you're on a treadmill it doesn't matter how fast you walk.
Pro-Kremlin party United Russia has proposed signing an anti-fascist pact with other political parties and public movements. The new document, signed by several parties already, is called the Anti-fascist Pact Agreement to Oppose Nationalism, Xenophobia and Religious Discord. Activities aimed at arousing national, racial or religious hatred is forbidden by law in our country, the agreement quoted on the partys Web site read. However, such activities must be also condemned morally. A social and information vacuum must be formed around those who profess and propagate fascism, racism, nationalism and xenophobia. They must become social outcasts.
United Russia has called for political parties and social organizations not to admit and to expel people with racist positions, who propagate national superiority, not to nominate or support candidates for parliament who propagate such ideas, and to condemn any such statement. The agreement has already been signed by such parties as the liberal Union of the Right Forces and the Russian Party of Liberal Democrats who often make nationalist statements.
The pro-Kremlin youth movement Ours, or Nashi, is planning to hold rallies commemorating the International Holocaust Day. They will be present outside a Moscow synagogue and a plaque there stating that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust years in Europe and Russia. Jan. 27 was proclaimed the International Holocaust Day by the UN General Assembly, marking the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.
A senior U.S. military commander in Iraq says coalition and Iraqi forces have driven insurgents from the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, and that reconstruction of the area is well under way. Army Colonel H.R. McMaster made the remarks during a teleconference from Iraq. Colonel McMaster says when his forces first arrived in northern Iraq last May, insurgents, including foreign fighters and Saddam loyalists, had choked the life out of the region by conducting systematic attacks throughout the area.
McMaster says many of the insurgents infiltrated the city of Tal Afar, which lies about 60 kilometers from porous Syrian border. "What the enemy really needed to do is intimidate the population in the area, to give them safe-haven so people would be afraid to cooperate with our forces or Iraqi security forces trying to bring security to the area," he said. "They also hoped to incite sectarian violence, which they did by collapsing the police force, turning the police force, in effect, into a sectarian militia that further fed the cycle of sectarian violence."
A turning point came last September when, for the first time, U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces took the lead in a major military operation against insurgents in Tal Afar. Colonel McMaster says the Iraqi army and police forces backed by U.S. troops successfully drove most of the foreign fighters out of the area. "As a result of our combined efforts with Iraqi security forces, some brave Iraqi leaders, soldiers and police I am happy to report to you that the situation in Tal Afar, and in western Niniweh, has fundamentally changed," he added. "What we have been able to achieve there together alongside our Iraqi brothers is to bring life back to this area, to rekindle hope."
Colonel McMaster says the success at Tal Afar means that a major staging area has now been taken from those dedicated to the defeat of coalition forces and the new Iraqi government. "This was an important physical defeat for the enemy because they lost this safe haven and support base in an area they hoped to use to destabilize the northern region of Iraq," he explained. "It was also a very important psychological defeat to the enemy, because people now understand that these anti-Iraqi forces want Iraq to fail."
Colonel McMaster says basic services, such as water and electricity, have now been restored in Tal Afar, and people in the city feel safe to move around the region. He says in the recent Iraqi elections some 90 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.
A MUSLIM who plotted to hunt down and kill a soldier who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire in Iraq was jailed for six years yesterday. Abu Mansha, 21, drew up his plan after reading a newspaper report that Corporal Mark Byles, of The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, had been awarded one of the Army's highest honours after leading a bayonet charge in which three Iraqi rebels died. In the article, Corporal Byles stated that he had killed as many as twenty insurgents during his six-month tour of duty.
When police searched Abu Mansha's flat in Thamesmead, southeast London, they found a blank-firing gun in the process of being converted to shoot live rounds, a balaclava with eye-holes cut out and a newspaper cutting detailing the soldier's exploits. DVDs featuring "virulent anti-Western propaganda" were also recovered, Southwark Crown Court was told. Some featured Osama bin Laden and another depicted the beheading of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley. A poem that the defendant had written describing George Bush and Tony Blair as "dirty pigs" was also found.
Abu Mansha, the British-born son of a Pakistani-born travel agent, had also researched the personal details of two businessmen, one a Hindu and the other a Jew. The market stallholder was convicted last month under the Terrorism Act of possessing information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". He remained impassive as Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: "The information found in his possession included Corporal Byles's past address. That information was in your handwriting, as was a request by you -- and I underline that -- for information about prominent members of the Jewish and Hindu communities. The jury rejected your claims that these were just journalistic inquiries. The maximum sentence for this offence is ten years' imprisonment. You have never faced a charge for conspiracy to kill or cause harm and I do not sentence you for that, but when that information came into your possession and was recorded by you, you crossed the boundary into terrorism." Abu Mansha has a previous conviction for affray as the result of a racial confrontation with another market stallholder three years ago.
Continued on Page 49
#1
"The likelihood of reoffending was described in the pre-sentence report as low."
At least while he's IN JAIL.
(Oops - sorry, forgot it's Britain. Make that IN GAOL.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/28/2006 0:14
Comments ||
Top||
#2
http://officersclub.blogspot.com/
Domestic terror? Charlie Munn, a patriot from the Officers Club blog, wonders what we would do in the case of another 9-11 disaster. Why wonder? Politicians would squeak solemn declarations about our resolve, and then go back to irresolution mode the next day. Listen to Charlie:
"Pick your scenario. Mine is a group of Chechen terrorists hijack an international flight from a Mexican coastal village, rig up a Soviet-era SS-19 warhead bought with oil money funded by Saudi Arabia from the Russian mob, and detonate it over a southern US city like Houston, Miami, or Atlanta. But it could be any scenario you may have heard of, a weaponized virus, dirty bombing the downtown of a state capitol, or a series of suicide bombings in populated areas across the country. Either way, the smoke clears, the bodies are hauled away, and the weeks after 9/11 seem to be repeating themselves. As a country, we ask: what did we learn?"
"When some crazy foreign leader says crazy things, we should take him seriously. Because the world is smaller now, we cant just dismiss foreign threats as crazy. When a terror leader weve never heard of suddenly attacks us, we should be asking why this guy hadnt been brought to our attention by the media. If it is someone we have heard of, we should be asking why the threat wasnt dealt with well enough to prevent a successful attack..."
Re. "crazy things" that foreign tyrants say, Larry Elder reveals a few:
Bellicose statements from Iran are certainly nothing new. "The non-Muslims are [like] those animals that graze, chew their cud and cause corruption," said Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. (The non-elected Guardian Council is the most influential body in Iran, with six clerics capable of blocking any legislation they deem inconsistent with Islam.) And, in the state-run Iranian reformist daily newspaper, Sharq, Assembly of Experts Head Ayatollah Ali Meshkini said, "The Iranian people must know that America and England are two cancerous growths, and [they] will destroy any country if they enter its body."
---------------------
[Rest of comment redacted by moderator]
A MUSLIM who plotted to hunt down and kill a soldier who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire in Iraq, was jailed for 6 years yesterday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-
discount..good time served, letters from George Galloway and the HOOK, and he'll be paroled fof the haj 2007.
KHAR: Families of the victims of the January 13 US air strike on Damadola village, Bajaur Agency, on Friday demanded compensation from the government to rebuild their homes. In a press statement, Shah Zaman and Sher Afzal, relatives of the dead tribesmen, said the government had not yet compensated the families. Both men said they (victims families including children) were spending nights out in the cold because their houses had been destroyed. Our homes were completely destroyed in the attack and it seems that the government has abandoned us. It hasnt compensated us yet, they said, adding, We are poor and we need the government help to rebuild our houses. They said the victims families did not have any money. The government should help its citizens, both men said. NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman announced early this week that the government would compensate the victims families.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
we agree. How will you compensate us for the fuel, pilot time, weapons' cost and followup labor to dig DNA from bodies you bastards hid from the foreign AQ f&ckers you were feeding and protecting? Compensation? Start talking...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 1:05
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You mean their good buddies Al-Q aren't going to compensate them?
I'm shocked! SHOCKED I tell you!
Not even Mike Al-moore or Cindy Shithan are going to help their 'freedom fighters'?
Afghans are among the most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a BBC survey has found, but such confidence is not always easy to find on the streets of the capital, Kabul. The survey found 70 percent of those questioned in Afghanistan thought their own circumstances were improving, and 57 percent believed their country overall was on the way up.
Doesn't bode well for the Talibs, does it?
The survey by the Globescan polling firm also found optimism in Iraq, where 65 percent of people believed their personal lives were getting better, and 56 percent were upbeat about their countrys economy. The firm surveyed 37,572 people in 32 countries between October 2005 and January 2006, said the BBC, which released the results this week.
That's just what the poll found, of course. If you cast about long enough, you can always find somebody who disagrees with everybody else...
On the cold streets of an overcast Kabul on Friday opinion seemed divided about how people were faring more than four years after US-led forces forced the hard-line Taleban from power. Its not getting better for ordinary people, only for a few businessmen and investors. Ordinary people are getting poorer and poorer, said laborer Syed Kamal. Jobs are so few some people are willing to work just for bread, he said. Prices have been rising fast in Kabul and many people say they are frustrated with what they see as a slow pace of improvement in their lives. Government figures show that billions of dollars of aid have been disbursed, but given the little change in the lives of many people, there hasnt been much improvement economically, said Kabul University student Izatullah, 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Government figures show that billions of dollars of aid have been disbursed, but given the little change in the lives of many people
Aghanistan could easily spend all that money just on roads and water wells. Let's just ignore the large amounts of funding that are going to train and equip the country's new police and army units, build schools and provide schoolbooks, and all those really basic things the Karzai government has been doing. Not to mention rebuilding that which the Taliban have been so avidly blowing up, removing mines and IEDs from the roads and fields, and so forth. And especially let's not mention the shockingly huge numbers of Afghan refugees that have returned home, most with nothing but more children and the clothes on their backs. "None so blind as those who will not see," indeed.
QUETTA: Armed men have kidnapped 11 people in the last two days from Pat Feeder Road and Sui Road of Dera Bugti, District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said on Friday. Lasi alleged that armed supporters of Nawab Akbar Bugti have kidnapped 11 Kalpar Bugtis, who are considered his opponents. Jamhoori Watan Party General Secretary Agha Shahid Bugti has denied any knowledge of the kidnappings. Security forces distributed pamphlets in Sui in mid-January, asking people to revolt against Bugti. Forces also raided Bugtis residence in Sui during that period. People in Dera Bugti and Sui had protested against the raid.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Friday protested in front of Parliament House against the killing of innocent people in the January 13 US air strike in Bajaur Agency and sought an apology from the US. Most protesters, who belonged to Bajaur Agency, held banners and placards inscribed with anti-Musharraf and anti-US slogans. Addressing the protesters, MMA leaders condemned the Bush administration and demanded the government expel the US ambassador to Pakistan from the country and declare him persona non grata.
Liaqat Baloch, MMA deputy secretary general, demanded an immediate stop to the military operations in the tribal areas and Balochistan, which he said was creating a rift between the provinces and federation. He said the MMA would take the issue up during National Assembly proceedings on Monday. People are dying in Balochistan while the rulers are conducting mixed marathons, he added.
He said that after having been defeated in Afghanistan, the US was now targeting the tribal areas. He called the US attack in Bajaur an attack on Pakistans sovereignty. He said the Pakistan Army should protect the countrys boundaries, which was their constitutional duty. The US was an international terrorist and wanted to impose a so-called world order in the world by using force in Iraq and Afghanistan and by supporting Israel against Palestine, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I want to protest Mushy, myself. The 20th Century's biggest parasite suppressed a UN speech from a victim of the Paki dishonor-murders that he does absolutely nothing about.
UN Undersecretary General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel said he "had fruitful consultations" with Lebanon's top officials on Friday, adding that he is "determined to inform [UN Secretary General Kofi] Annan immediately of their results." Michel, who arrived in Beirut Thursday, met Friday with President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Speaker Nabih Berri, Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh to discuss the nature of the court that would try those accused of killing former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
According to a presidential statement issued Friday, Michel briefed Lahoud on the nature of his mission in Lebanon, saying he was assigned by Annan to confer with Lebanese officials on the nature of the court. After his meeting with Siniora, Michel, who was accompanied by a UN delegation, said: "The conversations today were especially rich and will help us steer our work in the next few days; but we have to say that our Lebanese friends will have to help us in steering this thinking in the next few days." He added: "I am determined to tell Annan immediately of the results of my consultations, and after that we will continue to think in all directions."
Michel also said that he will respect the secrecy of the meetings and discussions. "All I can tell you is that the consultations will not be successful unless the Lebanese people - and not only its officials - consider that this consensus, [about the form of the court], relates to them," the UN official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
George Galloway's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother is tipped to raise only £30,000 for his nominated charity, while the Respect MP is set to earn a six-figure fee for his three-week stint on reality TV.
Mr Galloway did not draw an MP's salary while he was locked in the house, but his absence triggered anger and criticism from constituents and colleagues who demanded he get back to work. Yesterday, he defended his onscreen antics - which included pretending to be a cat and dressing in a red leotard - by highlighting the cash that would be raised for Interpal, a charity helping Palestinian refugees. "At least the people in Palestine might have shoes for their children and something to put in their children's stomachs, and two additional staff will be working in my constituency office as a result," he told the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2. He added that many Muslim people would be "totally glad" his participation would raise a lot of money for Palestinian refugees.
In his absence, he said other politicians may have been in the Commons, but "some of them might have been propping up the bars". He added: "Other MPs might have been on exotic foreign trips, fact-finding in the Seychelles or the Maldives. I was trying something different." Mr Galloway said that, while some of his acts may have embarrassed him, he was unashamed of his involvement. "Why are we talking about this?" he said. "The world is in flames. The Liberal Democrat party is imploding ... there is war and pestilence and disease in the world. Why are we talking on national radio for ten minutes about me, for charity, pretending to be a cat?"
Continued on Page 49
#3
"It is precisely because of Interpal's refusal to discriminate against sections of the Palestinian population terrorists that it has been the subject of unwarranted allegations of assisting terrorism."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006 9:59
Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Liberal Democrat party is imploding ... there is war and pestilence and disease in the world. Why are we talking on national radio for ten minutes about me, for charity, pretending to be a cat?"
Goodtimes end. Crazy people stay crazy.
Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents Friday near the notorious airport road and other districts of western Baghdad, arresting nearly 60 people as the sounds of a rousing song, "Where are the terrorists now?" blared from police car loudspeakers.
The fiercest clashes occurred in the Jihad district along the main road to Baghdad International Airport scene of numerous bombings and ambushes. U.S. attack helicopters roamed the skies and the rattle of automatic weapons fire echoed through the streets as motorists abandoned their vehicles and merchants shuttered their shops. Iraqi troops armed with rifles and machine guns blocked access to the areas where security operations were under way. However, residents reported seeing insurgent snipers on rooftops in the Jihad area and masked gunmen, some armed with rocket-propelled grenades, in the alleyways. An Associated Press photographer watched as gunmen shot dead two men trying to flee the area. Residents said the two were killed because they were collaborating with the Americans.
In the Saydiyah neighborhood, witnesses saw police hustle about a dozen men, blindfolded and handcuffed, into pickup trucks and driven away, while police car loudspeakers blared the lyrics to a commando fight song "Oh God, you protected the homeland, where are the terrorists now?" Police said about 60 people had been arrested in the various confrontations. There was no word on casualties.
Raids by Shiite-led government security forces into Sunni neighborhoods have sharpened sectarian tensions as Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians are trying under intensive U.S. pressure to organize a new broad-based government after last month's elections. U.S. officials hope such a government can win the trust of Sunni Arabs and lure them away from the Sunni-dominated insurgency. Sunni politicians have insisted on changes in the leadership of the security forces before they will join the government. During a sermon Friday at the Umm al-Qura mosque, Sunni cleric Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie condemned raids into Sunni communities by "death squads wearing police uniforms."
Continued on Page 49
The commanding officer of the paratroopers being sent to Afghanistan said yesterday that Army chiefs would give him their "full support" over any incident in which his soldiers might be prosecuted.
Sounds like they expect them to be.
Following a raft of prosecutions of troops in Iraq, Lt Col Stuart Tootal, the CO of 3 Bn, The Parachute Regiment, said it had been made clear that if his men found themselves having to open fire but "made an honest mistake" they would be fully backed. "The chain of command have told me they will understand and support the difficult decisions we make and there is no doubt my soldiers will have to make difficult decisions," he told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "But we have made it very clear to the men that they will act with legitimate conduct."
The regiment has already experienced the Army's prosecution system after seven members were cleared of murdering an Iraqi following a court martial last year in which the judge heavily criticised military investigators. The Paras are keen that the "rules of engagement" for Afghanistan will be robust enough that soldiers will not have to hesitate before getting involved in potentially lethal fire fights.
Lt Col Tootal, who took over command of 3 Para three months ago, was speaking as 3,000 troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and from Denmark and Estonia took part in a major exercise watched by John Reid, the Defence Secretary. At Copehill Down, a life-size mock village built on Salisbury Plain, 60 Afghans, specially recruited through a language agency, played drug barons, war lords, Taliban and interpreters as the Army made its preparations for the major deployment to Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 49
Two German engineers seized in Iraq this week were shown in a video yesterday appealing for their government to save their lives as Berlin strongly condemned the abduction. The two men, snatched at gunpoint by men in army uniforms, were shown surrounded by four masked men brandishing assault rifles from a group calling itself Ansar Al-Tawheed Wal Sunnah (Followers of Unity and Prophetic Tradition). No demands from the captors were apparently issued but Al-Jazeera television which showed the video said the men pleaded for the German government to intervene to secure their release. The first contact was made by the kidnappers, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told RTL television of the video. We cannot give any further details about the group.
Pay up once, you can expect to keep paying up.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Without being racist, an old saying comes to mind.
"Once you pay the Danegelt, the Dane never goes away."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/28/2006 7:56
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The whole of Kipling's poem
IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:
We invaded you last nightwe are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That youve only to pay em the Dane-geld
And then youll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:
Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But weve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to says:
We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!
Zakho, Iraq- In northern Iraq, there is a school under reconstruction that may have a greater impact on the future of Iraq than any other reconstruction effort. The school is Zakho Military Academy.
As important as oil, electricity, water, health care, and primary education are to Iraq's future, educating those already identified to be the future leaders of Iraq will provide direction in the same manner as a rudder steers a large ship. Zakho Military Academy is one of Iraq's two national military officer academies and is equivalent to the U.S. Army's Military Academy at West Point.
The force protection upgrades performed on the academy are now complete. These upgrades included the design and construction of nine guard towers located around the perimeter of the ZMA compound, installation of lighting on the perimeter wall, and the renovation of two compound entrances. The lighting will provide protection and security to the Iraqi Army cadre and cadets who live on campus. The guard towers will serve both as training opportunities for the cadets to learn first hand the nuances of guard mount, and as operational guard posts for the facility. The new entrances will inspire awe, determination, and commitment to entering cadets in the same manner as entering the gates of West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy have been symbolic for those entering training to become the nation's leaders in the U.S.
Other force protection projects included a new munitions storage facility and upgrades to the armory. The armory includes rooms for weapons issue, weapons maintenance and cleaning, and weapons racks and lockers for storing both rifles and pistols. The weapons storage rooms were equipped with their own independent air handling. The new munitions storage facility commonly called an ammunition supply point is a four meters by six meters brick building with elevated pads to keep the ammunition off the floor. The facility is secured by a three-meter-high berm, a cyclone fence with razor wire around its perimeter, and lights.
Continued on Page 49
Halliburton, the world's largest diversified energy services, engineering and construction company, on Friday said it was ready to spin off and list its KBR unit, which is the US's biggest private contractor in Iraq, and might also consider selling "some pieces of KBR" outright. The decision to list 20 per cent of KBR, which had been expected, comes as Halliburton reported the best annual figures in its 86-year history it earned $2.4bn, or $4.54 per share, in 2005, compared with a full-year net loss of $1bn, or $2.22 per share, in 2004.
Britain, Nigeria and US software tycoon Bill Gates have unveiled a $56bn plan to prevent 14m tuberculosis deaths over the next decade.
Good idea. Make sure you use Islamic serum, though, otherwise it's not gonna work in Nigeria.
Speaking at the launch at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Gates committed himself to tripling his own foundation's funding against TB from $300m to a total of $900m by 2015. Mr Gates, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown urged business and political leaders to back the new programme.
I'm wondering how much is going to be raked off by the pols and how much will actually buy treatment and immunization...
The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis aims to increase access to control programs and spur research on new ways to fight the disease, which was declared an emergency by 46 African countries last year. Mr Brown called on the G8 to formally designate TB - which kills 5,000 people daily - a top priority at its next meeting in July. $47bn of the cost of the plan would be for control of the disease and $9bn for research and development. TB is still one of the world's deadliest diseases and campaigners say it is responsible for killing one person every 15 seconds. 15 million patients in India account for nearly one third of the world's cases. If global controls are not strengthened, an estimated 1bn people will be infected by 2020 and 36m people worldwide could die. Few people today know how devastating the plague of TB used to be. It influenced entire generations with its unpredictable cruelty. The prospect of antibiotic-resistant strains is frightening.
#1
I remember sitting in the Abecorn restaraunt (well known for a terrorist bombing shortly afterwards) in Belfast in 1972. A man at the next table kept making a slight cough. The Irish girl with me, told me it was what they called the 'polite disease' = TB.
I'm no fan of BG, but kudos to him for helping tackle this scourge.
TB is one of the world's biggest killers, right up there with malaria and typhus. Anything we can do to control TB rebounds to our benefit. If Bill Gates wants to spend on money on this, great, he's the kind of guy who will make people accountable.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006 12:54
Comments ||
Top||
#4
That's what we're going to do before this war is over. The sooner we start, the sooner the war is over.
A large majority of Germans associate the European Union with economic and social problems and as many as 84 percent fear jobs may be lost to EU countries where labour costs are lower. The figures appeared in a Eurobarometer study carried out on behalf of the European Commission and seen by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
In the survey 64 percent said they saw loss of social standards and benefits as a problem. The European Union was not a solution to this, but rather part of the negative development. The survey was carried out among 1,534 citizens in October and November 2005. It showed that one in two Germans expected further European integration could result in an economic crisis. Fears of job-losses are generally leading to scepticism towards widening the bloc, with 59 percent saying no further enlargement should take place in the years ahead.
German business also noted negative impressions on Brussels. In a survey among members of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, a central organisation for 81 chambers, 76 percent said that the EU "interferes too much into business." Published by daily newspaper Die Welt, the poll showed a majority of 58 percent would like harmonised environmental rules in Europe and also harmonised tax-rules. But only 9 percent wanted labour market rules to be uniform across the EU.
#1
"A large majority of Germans associate the European Union with economic and social problems"
I'm sure it won't take long before their "betters" explain to them that it's really America's fault. More specifically, George Bush's.
After all, everything else is. Unless it's good, of course. Then it "just happened" in spite of America and Bush. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/28/2006 0:18
Comments ||
Top||
#2
as many as 84 percent fear jobs may be lost to EU countries where labour costs are lower
No sh*t sherlok. Tends to happen in free trade zones. But Eastern Europe is not the source of your concerns. Look east. No, not Russia, further east. Past Mongolia. That's it...China. Your problem is, like everyone else's, that you can't compete with China. To do so would mean you'd have to give up that ol' German treasure...quality. There's your dilemma.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/28/2006 0:44
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'm sure it won't take long before their "betters" explain to them that it's really America's fault. More specifically, George Bush's.
Blaming America for all problems, inciting people to hate America has been at the heart of the Europeist discourse and that since at least the end of the eighties when two crucial events happenned: 1) the collapsus of Soviet Union so Europeans no longer feared an invasion
2) When the EU began to evolve from a mere free market zone into a political entity. Mere geopolitics (ie the population and richness of the EU) and the need to constrain the population into an undemocratic (cf the constitution) entity with people they did not feel affinity (cf the indifference after the Madrid bombings) lead to the elites broadacsting an incresingly anti-american discourse. All while the Clinton administration applauded
#5
Hmmm....
Choice between a German made Zeiss camera or a Japanese digital likely manufactured in China?
Choice between a Mercedes or a Lexus?
Choice between German whine or Ozzie wine?
Who promotes business development and jobs more? The Commie government of China or the neo-Socialist bureaucratic government of Berlin and Brussels?
#8
One thing to remember is that the Germans, like the French and the Russians, like to be negative about things. By complaining, they show how clever and knowledgeable they are -- the "turn lemons into lemonade" outlook to them only demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the pitfalls of the situation. One reason they respond so negatively to the congenital American cheerfulness when confronted with obstacles.
Not to say they aren't correct that the EU is a major cause of their problems. But they would have the same problems with competition for business and jobs under any other scenario, just under a slightly different timespan.
#9
Average hourly wage in Germany :$30
Average hourly wage in Poland: $5
You do the math. Using government to "harmonize tax rules" will not do anything but incentivize the talented to leave for greener pastures.
Posted by: CA Screaming ||
01/28/2006 12:26
Comments ||
Top||
#10
See the post on Chancellor Merkel, above. She has a solution to this, even if her countrymen don't yet realize it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/28/2006 13:23
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Germans and Europeans love to blame the "others." Not good idea. Seems thay haven't learned that lesson. Instead of fixing their structural problem it's someone elses fault. Like good Europeans the government must fix it and take care of them. Last time that didn't work out very well for the Germans. If the true figures came out for Germany, France the EU would crater.
By the way anti-US propaganda is endemic in the German and European press. It's been that way since we became a country. They don't just hate George Bush, they hate us. The sooner people in the US understand that the more sane our EU relationship will become. We have no obligation to defend or support those who hate us. We need to let the European Union and it's citizens understand that. They need to tone their BS down and focus on their real problems. Get that plank out of your eye you are ignoring before you try to pull the sliver I can see in mine out.
We have our faults and problems. You can read about them in our MSM. We are not ignoring them and hoping the government makes them go away. Only the lefist morons and Europeans expect perfection from us.
Anti-american propaganda has been endemic (in France it began with Napoleon III who wished to help the Confedearacy but faced a pro-Union public opinion) but it has really acquired a peculiar virulence in the 90s. For intance the history books in use when I graduated (written during the watch of Gaullist ministers, those supposedly anti-american gaullists) were generally positive about American involvement in WWII. Today's books teach the new generations of French that the guys who fell at Omaha did it to bring new markets to American companies. Oh, and Arte TV (a joint French-German public-funded cultural TV) lately broadcasted a documentary stating that Germans were just poor victims of Nazism and that the Holocaust was... America's fault, because Americans didn't bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz(1). Such things would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.
(1) The fact is that until the very end of 1943 daytime raids over by the VIIIth Air Force over Germany, and railways cannot be attacked at night, ended with from 20% to 25% of the bombers being downed. In other words four raids and no more bombers. But Auschwitz is in Poland and bombing Poland would have been far worse due to the longer time outside fighter escort. It was only by the end of 1943 that an improved Mustang was released who was able to escort the bombers as far as Berlin. And by begining 1944 that new tactics were designed (don't fly along the bombers thuis conceeding speed and altitude to the Germans) but go in front of the bombers and attack the German planes just after take off when they were still low and slow (ie vulnerable). So by the end of march 1944 the Mustangs had wiped off the Luftwaffe from German airspace but by then there were only two months remaining for softening the German positins before D-Day. What would have happenned if D-Day had failed due to using resources on Auschwitz (who was out of range even of the new Mustang) instead of on the Atalntic wall? While we are at it, why is that our leftist and pan-europeist historians never blame Soviet Union for not bombing the railways to Auschwitz? It was far closer to Soviet airfields than to British ones. Why no blame on the Soviets?
#13
JFM, the antipathy goes back forever. The French helped us in the Revolution on a my enemy's enemy is my friend basis. As soon as the war was over, the ways to subvert the new nation and regain a position in North America. M. Genet toured the U. S. in 1793 to subvert American neutrality in Franc's war with Britain and to stir revolutionary fervor in the U. S. This evolved to an undeclared naval war in 1797. So the antipathy goes way back because the bottom up anglospheric politics has always represented a threat to the top dsown power structures that run Europe.
Turkish Kurdish rebels released a Turkish policeman from one of their guerrilla camps in northern Iraq yesterday after keeping him hostage for more than three months, human rights activists said. Officer Hakan Acil, 30, was released in the Iraqi border town of Zakho, said Kiraz Bicici, deputy head of Turkeys Human Rights Association. Bicici said Acil was in good condition and cried for much of the ride home.
Kurdish guerrillas abducted Acil on Oct. 9 after stopping his car at a roadblock near the southeastern town of Midyat, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. They did not take his fiancee, who was also in the car at the time. Turkish troops had been searching for Acil for months. He was handed over in Iraq at what Bicici described as a rebel camp. There were a lot of guerillas, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
Judge Serge Brammertz, the newly appointed head of the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, has informed Lebanese officials that the dossier handed over to him by his predecessor Detlev Mehlis contains enough information enabling him to identify those responsible for the murder and demand they stand trial. According to informed sources, Brammertz indicated that he intended to complete his mission within the next two or three months and prepare a final report to the UN Security Council.
He also expressed hope the Lebanese judiciary would complete its work and chief investigating magistrate Judge Elias Eid would prepare a bill to indict those killers before the summer in order to hand over all the evidence to the international tribunal that will be set up to try the defendants. The UN has already began discussions with the government in Beirut on the nature of the tribunal, the identity o the judges, its venue and remit. The Belgian judge believes that Syria represents the principal obstacle for the UN commission since it has yet to give a clear and firm response as to whether it will cooperate in a constructive way with the international investigation team. Syrias promises have yet to materialize and the statements of officials in Damascus are not matched by deeds. What is required is an answer to whether President Bashar Assad will allow the probe team to meet Foreign Minister Faruq al Sharaa and question his brother-in-law Asef Shawkat, head of military intelligence, the sources added.
Brammertz is set to refuse a Syrian request to sign a protocol of cooperation with Damascus because he believes the text of UN Resolution 1636 is clear and stipulates that Syria should cooperate with the international probe. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources at the UN headquarters have indicated that the investigation team has recovered the voice recordings of Syrian officials that include threats to Prime Minister Hariri. These recordings are one of the most important peices of evidence in the investigation that [Former investigator] Detlev Mehlis wanted to keep confidential.
The same sources predicted that the Syrian leadership would have become aware of these recordings and was, therefore, preventing its officials from meeting with the investigators. It also considers the demand to question the leadership as an infringement on national sovereignty.
National sovereignity appears to be the last resort of the incompetent dictator.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
On Jan. 18 Armenia sent a third contingent of peacekeepers to Iraq, replacing the country`s second contingent of troops dispatched there on July 13. At a ceremony for the departing soldiers Deputy Minister of Defense Lt. Gen. Arthur Aghabekyan said, 'We have repeatedly stated that our contribution to Iraq`s restoration is, first of all, a question of moral duty. We ought to give a hand to the friendly Iraqi people and to make our modest contribution to the work of our partners.'
The troops will initially go to Kuwait for outfitting and training, ARMINFO News agency reported. The Armenian humanitarian contingent consists of 46 members, including officers, two communication specialists, a platoon commander, two physicians, 10 sappers and 30 drivers. The Armenians will be based in Al-Kut, 62 miles from the capital of Baghdad, and will be attached to the Polish peacekeeping division. The U.S. administration is underwriting the contingent`s expenses.
In Dec. the National Assembly approved President Robert Kocharian`s suggestion to extend the term of Armenian peacekeepers` presence in Iraq for one year, which will now extend to 2007. In return the Bush administration has announced its intention to release $235.5 million in additional economic assistance to Armenia after validating that it had received 'credible reassurances' that Kocharian`s government is committed to democracy and good governance. The additional funding was approved in December by the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government agency managing the administration`s Millennium Challenge Account. The Millennium Challenge Account program is intended to promote political and economic reforms in developing nations, but the grant was conditional on 'corrective steps' that would address issues of chronic vote rigging and civil rights violations in Armenia.
An international tribunal must be set up to try the suspected killers of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, head of the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc MP Walid Jumblatt told Friday's edition of the French daily Liberation newspaper. Jumblatt added that ongoing investigations should be widened to cover other assassinations in Lebanon.
On Thursday, a senior United Nations legal expert arrived in Beirut to discuss Lebanese calls for such a tribunal but the world body has not gone as far as saying such a court would definitely be established. "All we can do is stick to our basic position: demand an international tribunal and widen the enquiry to include other assassinations," said Jumblatt, speaking from his home in Mukhtara in the Chouf mountains. The prospect of an international tribunal has led Hizbullah and Amal to start boycotting the Cabinet on December 12.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wally ought to be calling for a cure for baldness. And ugly.
Fighting the war in Iraq has transformed artillerymen into light infantrymen, a job filled with cordon and searches missions, motorized convoys and dismounted patrols. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, accepted and excelled in their nontraditional role. The field artillery Soldiers have dominated a large area throughout the city and rich farmland of Taji, performing in the role of the light infantryman and securing peace for the people of the region. "We've captured 109 insurgents," said Lt. Col. Rafael Torres, commander, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment. "We've discovered 15 caches (of weapons), three of which were the biggest ever found in this area. We've taken in excess of 1,500 artillery rounds here recently and destroyed them."
Since their arrival in the Taji area in October 2005, the 1st Battalion, or "Top Guns," has undergone more than just artillery-turned-infantry adjustments. Coming from Fort Campbell, Ky., and normally attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, "Top Guns" landed in Iraq and were attached to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division out of Wiesbaden, Germany. The Soldiers wasted no time in tackling the light infantry role and taking charge of a larger area of operations than most battalions, said Torres. "Our units are spread out, so we have the challenge of constantly maneuvering our forces on the battlefield to ensure that we have the right combat power at the decisive point of an engagement," Torres explained. "I think the operational cell and the batteries have done a really good job in being flexible and doing that."
The missions have been overwhelmingly successful, said Torres, despite the loss of six Soldiers since the beginning of operations. "I think the fact that we are a team is key," said Capt. Robert Jenkins, whose Battery A has sustained all six "Top Gun" losses. "Just maintaining that sense of team and keeping that as the nucleus of everything we do, we'll be alright."
Continued on Page 49
Thousands of activists from Fatah protested throughout the Gaza Strip on Friday, burning abandoned cars, shooting in the air and demanding Fatah leaders resign after the party's shock election defeat. About 1,000 angry party activists, including 100 gunmen, drove by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' resident in Gaza, calling from loudspeakers for all corrupt leaders to step down and urging Abbas not to form a coalition with Hamas. Abbas was in the West Bank town of Ramallah at the time.
"Ahmed, get the car! We're goin' to Ramallah! And make it quick! They're almost here!"
After evening prayers, the protesters went back to Abbas' house, and fired rifles in the air, before marching and driving through the city, waving Palestinian flags, yellow Fatah flags and posters of the late leader Yasser Arafat.
... who's no doubt spinning slowly in his grave...
They then led a march through Gaza City toward the security headquarters, tearing down Hamas election posters and banners and burning tires and some of the Hamas posters. Security personnel did not allow anyone to enter their compound. More than 15,000 people took part in the mass Fatah demonstrations across Gaza.
Mohammad Dahlan, Fatah's strongman in Gaza, arrived at the house and called on the crowd to head back to Parliament where he gave a short speech. "I assure you that Fatah won't participate with the new government... Those who are betraying us should assume this responsibility," he said.
In the West Bank city of Hebron, about 500 Fatah members, including some gunmen shooting in the air, marched to the local Fatah office, where one of the masked gunmen read a statement demanding the resignation of the central committee. The militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Fatah, issued a statement threatening to "liquidate" the faction's leaders if they changed their minds and joined a Hamas-led administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Imagine the Paleos astonishment that they've been sold a bill of goods for 60 years:
"then they pried open Arafats' tomb, but of course it was empty, with but a bandolier, a dirty kaffiyeh, a red notebook, a Michael Jackson model turkey baster, and a supply of Retrovir left upon the earthen floor"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 0:44
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yes, popcorn would go good with that story. I should care about the inevitable loss of life that will happen in Paliland, but I don't. Sow the wind...
According to the Guardian guy yesterday, the paleo-elections were the purest expression of total and absolute True Democracy in the whole ME, even more so than the rigged iraqi elections (you see, old Zark couldn't even present his candidates), and than the ZionistEntity(tm)'s, where they allow (gasp!) rightwing people to vote.
#6
Update:
Hundreds of Fatah activists, angry at their party's election defeat, entered the compound of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday to pray at the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The group, which included several gunmen, were allowed into the compound by guards and peacefully proceed toward Arafat's tomb in an empty lot inside. Abbas' security force formed a cordon around the activists to prevent them from approaching the nearby building that holds the Palestinian leader's office.
Outside the compound, known as the muqaata, some of the militants shot in the air and chanted: "We came to you Abu Amar to forgive us for what happened." Abu Amar was Arafat's nickname.
Jibril Rajoub, Abbas' national security adviser who was among the protesters, warned Hamas not to tamper with the security forces.
"The security forces will stay. Hamas has no power meddling with the security forces," he said.
Earlier Saturday, thousands of angry Fatah activists, led by masked gunmen firing wildly in the air, marched in the West Bank on Saturday, demanding the resignation of party leaders.
Dozens of them made their way into the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah Saturday afternoon and began shooting in different directions.
Some of the gunmen said they would no longer observe an informal cease-fire with Israel.
In the city of Nablus, about 2,000 Fatah members marched through the streets, led by dozens of gunmen from the Fatah-allied Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, who climbed aboard the back of a truck and fired in the air.
"Al Aksa, from Rafah to Jenin, has stopped the cease-fire," one of the gunmen aboard the truck, Nasser Haras, told the crowd. "We are now no longer part of the cease-fire."
Following bloody clashes Friday night and Saturday morning between his group and Fatah, Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Hania, told his followers Saturday morning that, "weapons should be turned only against Israel.
"Our battle is not against our own people," he added.
The statement came after Hamas gunmen ambushed a Palestinian police patrol early Saturday, wounding two officers, Gaza police said.
The shooting in the southern town of Khan Younis came just hours after an exchange of fire between Hamas gunmen and police in the same area. A Hamas gunman and two policemen were wounded in the firefight. One of the officers was shot in the head and chest, and later died of his wounds, Army Radio reported.
In an attempt to show that it was treating Hamas like a terrorist organization, Israeli government officials said Saturday that Hamas members in Gaza would not be allowed travel rights to the West Bank and vice-versa
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 14:08
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Fatah needs the Ring of Abu Amar. Dig his butt up and let's have a parade!
#1
yes, well done. Too bad Amnesty shot their reputation and allowed it to bleed to death. People might actually be willing to listen to their proposal to get the arms trade under control - rather than just automatically assuming that it is going to be as silly and meaningless as everything else they have done recently.
#3
The Instaprofessor's stated position, iirc, is that if every citizen of the world were extended the protection of gun ownership, a lot of the problems with authoritarians and dictators would be history. I note that even during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, we still allowed each homeowner, head of family, to keep an AK47 and ammo. Our casualties have mainly been IED. And there have been records of local people capturing or fighting the foreigners who've created the problem in country. Hmmmm....
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal rejected suggestions the radical group should disarm following its shock victory in Palestinian elections, in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday. Meshaal said in Damascus that the internationally sponsored roadmap for Middle East peace was unacceptable, and that talk of forming a coalition with the moderate Fatah, which it thrashed in the polls, was premature.
The roadmap is unacceptable, Meshaal told the daily La Repubblica, saying it imposed strict conditions on the Palestinians while asking too little of Israel. Meshaal - who survived an Israeli assassination bid in 1997 - said the radical group would certainly not lay down its arms as long as much as its territory was occupied. Only force has produced results, he said, citing Israels recent withdrawal from Gaza. However, he denied his group sought the destruction of Israel, saying its statute had been misunderstood in the West.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"We wuz only jokin'...we never thought we'd win"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 1:03
Comments ||
Top||
#2
my popcorn is ready and i'm snug in my armchair and the show is starting! yay
#5
Khaled Meshaal:"Only force has produced results, he said,"
Yep UR right there Kahled. Odd how Sheikh Yassin is smiling, from his grave, over your shoulder. That might makes right stuff is two way street there buddy. I see a HellFire in your future as well.
The two main Darfur rebel groups could reach a peace deal with the Sudanese government within weeks now that Khartoum has shown signs of softening its position, the African Unions top mediator said yesterday. Unless something very dramatic happens in Darfur, we shall have a peace agreement in the next couple of weeks, AU chief negotiator Sam Ibok told Reuters, adding he hoped to see a deal signed by mid-February. The implementation is another thing.
The Sudanese government has said the African Unions recent decision to delay its presidency of the organization over concerns about Darfur had provided added impetus to reach a peace agreement. The onus is on the government to be more forthcoming, Ibok said. The international community is impatient, the African Union is impatient. The people in Darfur are suffering.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Police on Friday clashed with Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) activists at various points on the Lahore Marathon 2006 route and arrested dozens. The activists were protesting against the marathon, which will be held on Sunday. Police said it baton charged and tear gassed the activists and arrested about 100. Police was also on alert throughout the day to handle more protests and ensure the safety of the marathon routes.
No mention of wimmin running, so I assume that it's the young men in short pants who arouse enrage the mullahs.
The clashes occurred on Lower Mall, near Qaddafi Stadium, Masjid-e-Shuhda and Upper Mall before and after Friday prayers. Police cordoned off various locations. About 1,000 IJT activists took part in the largest protest that came out of Islamia College, Lahore, at 12:00pm. The protesters marched to Lahore Museum where they chanted slogans against the marathon and liberalism. Dozens of policemen baton charged the rally, as the activists were not dispersing. The activists also started tearing banners and posters of the Lahore marathon and tried to disrupt the arrangements made by the City District Government and event organisers. Activists pelted police and cars with stones and damaged several vehicles. Separately, MMA activists also took out a rally outside Masjid-e-Shuhda after Friday prayers and clashed with police. MMA activists and seminary students from a local madrassa near Qaddafi Stadium also took out a rally, followed by another clash.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
I've often wondered what would happen if during one of these "demonstrations" that escalate into a riot, the police mounted a couple of .50cal on flatbeds and started raking the crowd. I wonder how long it would take for another "demonstration" to get out of hand. When you begin destroying other people's property, you've moved from "exercising free speach" to "criminal behavior", regardless of what the "laws" state.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/28/2006 16:21
Comments ||
Top||
A high-ranking Venezuelan army commander charged the US Embassy on Thursday with trying to persuade a group of Venezuelan military officers to hand over state secrets to the Pentagon. Armed Forces Inspector Gen. Melvin Lopez said navy authorities had opened a judicial probe into the case, which could further chill relations between Washington and the worlds fifth-largest oil exporter.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Add this to the "list" of supposed anti-Chavez provications.
or is that a package of chiclets in your pocket? No doubt there'll be many of these in the run-up to Martial Law as Fidel Jr. tries to emulate the master
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 0:48
Comments ||
Top||
Dozens of Taleban rebels attacked the office of a district police chief in southern Afghanistan before dawn yesterday, triggering a shootout that left seven assailants dead and five Afghan police officers wounded, police said. The battle happened in Registan district, about 150 kilometers south of the city of Kandahar, said Haji Sher Agha, the district police chief. He said the surviving rebels, armed with assault rifles and other weapons, fled afterward with an unknown number of their wounded. Afghan security forces were looking for them. We killed seven Taleban and we have their bodies, he said.
Hours later, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying Afghan police officers in neighboring Helmand province, killing two of them and injuring two others.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Run awayyyyyy"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/28/2006 13:32
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Just a test, whew! For a moment, I thought RB was finally getting to you, Fred.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/28/2006 13:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Test comment for redaction.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/28/2006 13:27
Comments ||
Top||
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.
BAGHDAD - Iraqs interior minister said on Saturday that the conservative Shia United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won most seats in the December election, will take half the ministries plus one in the next government.
by Jay Nordlinger, National Review
NEWPORT, Tenn. (AP) -- When agents swooped in last year with helicopters and machine guns in a raid on what was said to be the nation's largest illegal cockfighting pit, they shined new light on a tradition of good ol' boy vice in aptly named Cocke County. Moonshine, hookers and drug dealing had for decades been as much a part of the landscape as the foggy haze that settles over the community of 35,000 in the Great Smoky Mountains, along the North Carolina state line.
When it comes to buying souvenirs, anti-globalization activists have found a shopping paradise at the World Social Forum. From "Che" Gueverra T-shirts to books on "21-Century Socialism" and "Low-impact backpacking," Venezuela's street vendors are offering just about anything a leftist activist might want, eager to capitalize on the gathering of more than 60,000 people.
Hamas' political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal declared on Saturday that his group will not disarm and that he was ready to form an army to defend the Palestinian people from aggression.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said Friday that Russia would beef up its early warning system by building a new radar station. "This is an important question of national security," Ivanov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying. "Not having modern stations, we simply will go blind."
X-Band
U.S. President George W. Bush told 
A day after its sweeping victory in Palestinian legislative elections, pressure mounted on Hamas to renounce violence and accept the existence of archfoe Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would soon ask Hamas to form the next government. Supporters of his Fatah party fought a gunbattle with Hamas activists.
A MUSLIM who plotted to hunt down and kill a soldier who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire in Iraq was jailed for six years yesterday. 
KHAR: Families of the victims of the January 13 US air strike on Damadola village, 
Afghans are among the most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a BBC survey has found, but such confidence is not always easy to find on the streets of the capital, Kabul. The survey found 70 percent of those questioned in Afghanistan thought their own circumstances were improving, and 57 percent believed their country overall was on the way up.
QUETTA: Armed men have kidnapped 11 people in the last two days from Pat Feeder Road and Sui Road of 
ISLAMABAD: The 
UN Undersecretary General for Legal Affairs 
Mr Galloway did not draw an MP's salary while he was locked in the house, but his absence triggered anger and criticism from constituents and colleagues who demanded he get back to work. Yesterday, he defended his onscreen antics - which included pretending to be a cat and dressing in a red leotard - by highlighting the cash that would be raised for 
Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents Friday near the notorious airport road and other districts of western Baghdad, arresting nearly 60 people as the sounds of a rousing song, "Where are the terrorists now?" blared from police car loudspeakers.
Two German engineers seized in Iraq this week were shown in a video yesterday appealing for their government to save their lives as Berlin strongly condemned the abduction. The two men, snatched at gunpoint by men in army uniforms, were shown surrounded by four masked men brandishing assault rifles from a group calling itself 
Halliburton, the world's largest diversified energy services, engineering and construction company, on Friday said it was ready to spin off and list its KBR unit, which is the US's biggest private contractor in Iraq, and might also consider selling "some pieces of KBR" outright. The decision to list 20 per cent of KBR, which had been expected, comes as Halliburton reported the best annual figures in its 86-year history it earned $2.4bn, or $4.54 per share, in 2005, compared with a full-year net loss of $1bn, or $2.22 per share, in 2004.
Britain, Nigeria and US software tycoon Bill Gates have unveiled a $56bn plan to prevent 14m tuberculosis deaths over the next decade.
A large majority of Germans associate the European Union with economic and social problems and as many as 84 percent fear jobs may be lost to EU countries where labour costs are lower. The figures appeared in a Eurobarometer study carried out on behalf of the European Commission and seen by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
Turkish Kurdish rebels released a Turkish policeman from one of their guerrilla camps in northern Iraq yesterday after keeping him hostage for more than three months, human rights activists said. Officer Hakan Acil, 30, was released in the Iraqi border town of Zakho, said Kiraz Bicici, deputy head of Turkeys Human Rights Association. Bicici said Acil was in good condition and cried for much of the ride home.
Judge 
An international tribunal must be set up to try the suspected killers of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, head of the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc MP 
Thousands of activists from Fatah protested throughout the Gaza Strip on Friday, burning abandoned cars, shooting in the air and demanding Fatah leaders resign after the party's shock election defeat. About 1,000 angry party activists, including 100 gunmen, drove by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' resident in Gaza, calling from loudspeakers for all corrupt leaders to step down and urging Abbas not to form a coalition with Hamas. Abbas was in the West Bank town of Ramallah at the time.
Exiled Hamas leader 
The two main Darfur rebel groups could reach a peace deal with the Sudanese government within weeks now that Khartoum has shown signs of softening its position, the African Unions top mediator said yesterday. Unless something very dramatic happens in Darfur, we shall have a peace agreement in the next couple of weeks, AU chief negotiator Sam Ibok told Reuters, adding he hoped to see a deal signed by mid-February. The implementation is another thing.
Police on Friday clashed with 
Dozens of Taleban rebels attacked the office of a district police chief in southern Afghanistan before dawn yesterday, triggering a shootout that left seven assailants dead and five Afghan police officers wounded, police said. The battle happened in Registan district, about 150 kilometers south of the city of Kandahar, said Haji Sher Agha, the district police chief. He said the surviving rebels, armed with assault rifles and other weapons, fled afterward with an unknown number of their wounded. Afghan security forces were looking for them. We killed seven Taleban and we have their bodies, he said. 
