October 2006 Archives

What's unclear is if Kerry's comments will help rally Republican voters or help their party portray Democrats as against the troops to score victories next Tuesday. A Democratic congressman told ABC News Tuesday, "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."

It's pretty funny....

"Thanks to the Internet, all life is on the record now," observed Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York. "Everything a politician says and does is public and the world can see in a second. … that's life now."

The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that American troops in Iraq are uneducated.

"As a constituent of Senator Kerry's I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged," said National Commander Paul A. Morin. "A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn't true then and his warped view of today's heroes isn't true now."

BOSTON -- The mother of a local Marine who was killed in Iraq spoke out Tuesday about the comments that Sen. John Kerry made about U.S. troops and education.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported Tuesday that while talking to a group of students in California, Kerry urged them to study hard or else they can "get stuck in Iraq."

"I am very disturbed. I am very insulted and very sad that he doesn't understand how highly educated and well trained our military men and women are," said Debra Booth, whose son was killed in Iraq.

UNIMAGINABLE JUDGMENT

NYC mayor campaigns with Lieberman in Connecticut:
Nonpartisanship in the extreme

Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg touted Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's independent approach Monday, saying the three-term incumbent is willing to work across party lines to get results in an era of partisan gridlock.

"I think the voters of Connecticut understand they need proven independent leadership. Joe Lieberman provides that," Bloomberg said at a news conference after greeting commuters with Lieberman at the Stamford train station. "I think people of all parties are just tired of the political bickering."

Hip hip hooray !

The event was a chance for both men to showcase their bipartisan credentials.

Bloomberg, a Republican who shares Lieberman's independent streak in a city considered Democratic turf, is trying to help Lieberman reach GOP and independent voters as the race closes. Bloomberg emphasized Monday that he is not laying the groundwork for a 2008 presidential bid.

Lieberman, his party's 2000 vice presidential candidate, is running as an independent after losing to wealthy businessman Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary.

Statement of John Kerry Responding to Republican Distortions, Pathetic Tony Snow Diversions and Distractions

Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record:

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

What's this about?

Kerry telling students it's pointless to study hard and then end up in stuck in Iraq....isn't that sweet for those who serve voluntarily and are told it's pointless in this way, or worse that the soldiers in Iraq are the detritus of education ..ignorant, and stuck (like this guy I suppose). Messr. Kerry est sans "clue" oh and by the way...one of the right wing nut jobs....

New U.S. counter-insurgency partnership in N. Africa to include Libya

WASHINGTON — The United States plans to include Libya in a North African counter-insurgency network.

Libya would become a major partner in the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership. The group involves nine African states, including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Morocco joined the group in 2005.

The plan to include Libya would increase the intelligence exchange between Tripoli and Washington and lead to U.S. defense and security aid to the regime of Col. Moammar Khaddafy. Officials said Tripoli, opposed by the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, would help prevent Al Qaida from establishing a sanctuary in North Africa.

The U.S. European Command has been discussing with Libya its inclusion in TSCTP, an annual $500 million program that helps train and equips special forces in North Africa. The State Department and Pentagon have encouraged the effort as part of enhanced U.S. military and diplomatic ties with Tripoli.

N Korea 'hides nuclear village network

Yells the headline...is there any surprise? More than a yawn. Any thoughts about possible corrective plans?

No. None, right?

Here' a big 'SO WHAT'?

NORTH Korea has established secret towns with thousands of closely guarded residents whose sole mission is to develop nuclear weapons, a South Korean lawmaker said today.

Up to 36,000 people, including the North's top nuclear scientists and their families, live in the villages in complete isolation in the already reclusive country, Conservative Grand National Party lawmaker Song Young-sun said in a report.

Earlier we read how AQ Khan's little enterprise actually SOLD P-2 centrifuges to Iran.

Bush says this is all unacceptable, but unless I have missed something, we HAVE in fact, accepted this.

What are they REALLY saying and thinking, in Tokyo, in Seoul, In Canberra, as they read the words of John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich, John Kerry, and and Al Gore?

What are they REALLY saying and thinking, in Tokyo, in Seoul, In Canberra, as they read about Baker in Iraq, and think back to Scowcroft's op-ed's and editorials about realpolitik?

They are thinking the USA cannot be depended upon, that in the end, nomatter how we begin, Hassan Abassi is correct, and the risk averse american PEOPLE themselves restrain the judgment of some leaders in the end about unpleasant realities.

What are the consequences of this?

Al Qaida rallies with new funding, recruits and safe havens in Pakistan and Somalia

The bad news is that Al Qaida is staging a comeback.

The worse news is that the comeback is taking place in the most sensitive of U.S. allies — nuclear Pakistan.

Western intelligence sources report that Al Qaida has reorganized and grown far stronger over the past six months. Al Qaida has received fresh funding from a range of prominent Sunnis who see the movement by Osama Bin Laden as the last line of defense against Shi'ite Iran.

Bin Laden has been grateful for the Gulf Arab support. He has eased plots in such countries as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and has been working on consolidating power in Pakistan and Somalia.

Al Qaida already has all of Somalia for a haven. In Pakistan, the entire frontier with Afghanistan belongs to Al Qaida as the movement has recruited thousands of young Muslims throughout major cities.

Well, first, about two weeks ago we get this:

October 18, 2006: Kuwait announced that it's police and intelligence services had discovered an Iran espionage and sabotage organization within Kuwait. The Iranian agents, recruited from among the Shia (who are half the population) in Kuwait, were often trained in Iran. The Iranian network consisted mainly of "sleeper cells" (agents who were inactive, and went about their normal lives until activated by their Iranian bosses.) Kuwait is still trying to discover the extent of the Iranian networks, but fears that it may be a large one (several thousand members).

then it's repeated today by Strategypage, not exactly a bunch of overexcited hysterical types.

Sorry folks...if you were looking for us since about 5PM EDST yesterday, we had a huge storm with 70 mph + winds for about 12-20 hours, and 3+ inches of rain, and 5 foot waves on the lake crashing over the shoreline...trees took out power and phones...in effect we had an unannounced force 1 hurricane.

Back up as of 10:14 AM EST

Army Reserve Sgt. Ryan Gallucci

Then-Spc. Gallucci and his six-member civil affairs team spent almost a year in Iraq between 2003 and 2004 helping to rebuild the infrastructure and improve the quality of life for the Iraqis. The team worked and lived in towns near the Iranian border, performing tasks such as getting schools and municipal governments up and running, and making sure the teachers and workers were on the payroll. Gallucci was responsible for about $4.7 million in public works projects duringuths deployment. In a village just outside the city of Khanaqin, Gallucci worked closely with Iraqi contractors to build a water pumping station and three wells, and located generators to help run the pumping station. He and his contractors also laid $20,000 worth of pipe, bringing water to several homes for the first time in 17 years. The team also built a landfill outside Khanaqin, and helped get the landfill workers on the payroll. In September 2005, Gallucci was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his work.

VISIT THIS SITE

These men and women should be touring the USA
Why aren't they?
Why aren't they speaking in public about what they do?
Why aren't they on CNN instead of Juba's head shots?
Shame on you Wolf
What is WRONG?

The facts are these:

The Minneapolis St Paul International Airport has been struck by a group of apparently mostly Somali taxi drivers (an excellent job for entry onto the American 'cursus honorum') SOME of whom seem to have decided that allowing normal american (and other) passengers into their cabs, infringes on their religion ..they seem to have received a fatwa...

The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."

Okay, so don't go the airport, and don't wait near popular bars and nightclubs, right?

But the somalis themselves are both confused and concerned...why?

An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport controversy was raised.

"I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport," said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking alcohol in a taxi."

Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get his license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."

Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits cabdrivers from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic law, several men said.

Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people in commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in Somali cultural practice or legal tradition for that.

"This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."

So what's the deal with the fatwa?

The fatwa is the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. The Hassan Al Banna, Blind Sheikh, Ayman AL Zawalhiri, Sayd Qutb, Muhammad Qutb, Abdullah Azzam, HAMAS, Sheikh Yassin, Ikwhan is LOOKING FOR ISSUES to assert their authority and begin the long process of abrading freedom in the name of submission.

We should be aware that this action is a template, and American processes are designed to respond in a PC fashion, to accommodate the complainant. To emplace rigorous responses to ensure OUR way of life and freedoms, we will have to commit acts to change the nature of these processes which were never designed for a religious assault, purposefully committed to the abrasion of the American value set

Don't miss this , a Chicago Tribune 2004 investigative report on the Muslim Brotherhood in America

U.S. to examine laser system for destroying short-range missiles
Israel developing rocket interceptor
New US Airborne Laser

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government plans to evaluate a laser-based anti-missile system.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will study the Skyguard laser-based missile defense system, which was developed by Northrop Grumman. The system has been marketed to Israel to intercept Palestinian-origin Kassam-class, short-range missiles fired from the Gaza Strip.

Homeland Security awarded Northrop Grumman a $1.9 million contract to evaluate solutions to counter the MANPADS threat to commercial aircraft and civil airports.

The Skyguard emerged from the now-defunct Israeli-U.S. Tactical High Energy Laser [THEL] project. In 2005, the U.S. Army canceled the Mobile THEL program, which sought to reduce a laser weapon system to fit a railroad car.

Northrop Grumman will develop an operational concept to use Skyguard in civil aviation. The 18-month contract is for component-level testing and to assess life-cycle costs.

"The ability of a high-energy laser to shoot down rockets, artillery and mortars has been demonstrated repeatedly with mature chemical laser technologies proven in the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL," said Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman's Space Technology group.

Industry sources said a U.S. contract could encourage Israel to procure Skyguard. In January 2006, a visiting Northrop Grumman team discussed a $500 million project to modify Skyguard for Israeli requirements.

"Skyguard will be a revolutionary approach to aviation security because it's based on the only laser system that has shot down a wide variety of airborne threats in flight," Livanos said.

DHS has limited the assessment of Skyguard to the current laser system prototype and has not sought additional development.

"As the prime contractor for the THEL test bed, Northrop Grumman is building on that system's nearly perfect record of performance and safety in Skyguard," said Mike McVey, president of Northrop Grumman's Directed Energy Systems business area. "Skyguard will be one-fourth the size and one-half the cost of THEL, while also being more powerful and more efficient."

Online Fatwas Incite Young Muslims to Jihad

Wow, what next? 'Radical imams quoting Muhammad and Qutb incite young muslims on fridays?'

In an article in the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh, columnist Fares bin Hazam reports that both preachers in mosques and online propaganda are inciting young Muslims to wage jihad. [1] An interview with a young Muslim who went to fight in Afghanistan, also in Al-Riyadh, provides first-hand testimony confirming this claim.

The following are excerpts from the article and the interview:

Saudi Columnist: Preachers in Mosques Urge Worshipers to Join the Jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan

Bin Hazam writes in his article: "The business with Afghanistan will never end as long as the 'duty of jihad' continues to live in [our] society, in mosques, in Friday [sermons], and on the Internet...

"After the fall of the Taliban and the subsequent Guantanamo crisis... there was increasing talk about the need to investigate our youth's growing [inclination] towards jihad, and about the need to search for the reasons that motivate them to go to Afghanistan and to other countries...

"The call to investigate these reasons is despicable; it is a tasteless joke. [One might think] that the reasons are unknown, that we are not aware of our situation [and need to conduct an] investigation in order to discover why [our young people] went forth and are still going forth [to wage jihad]... The reasons are obvious. Many of us know them, and there is no need for a scientific study or for any other [kind of study] to reveal them...

"Since the causes are known, do we lack courage to deal with [this problem]? [I believe that] we do. Our lack of courage has been apparent ever since we invented the excuse of 'external [influences],' and began to toy with it and wave it at every opportunity. I do not know where these [external influences] come from, since it was we who sent our young men [to Afghanistan] in the first place, before we ever heard of [these influences] that allegedly come [from outside].

"Some preachers, [namely] those who fear the censor, deceive him by being implicit in their incitement to [wage] jihad in Iraq or Afghanistan. They speak in their sermons about the merits of jihad without mentioning a particular region. They speak in general terms that can be applied to any location, even to our [own] country. During the prayer, the details start to pour in thick and fast: first, [a call to wage jihad] in Palestine, [which serve as] a smokescreen, and then [calls for jihad] in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya, and finally... the call 'oh Allah, grant them victory everywhere!' 'Everywhere' includes our [own] country... and we say 'amen' after the preacher calls [upon Allah] to help the mujahideen in our [own] country..."

Iran recruiting up to a million police to cope with mounting unrest

Iran is planning a major expansion of its police forces to contain demonstrations in the capital by students and workers that authorities fear the U.S. is backing. Officials said the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to significantly increase the police force in Teheran. The police presence would be bolstered by up to 1 million volunteers.

Teheran police commander Morteza Tala'i said Iran plans to construct as many as 100 police stations in the city in 2007. He said thousands of police would be recruited into the force to ensure order.

Over the past year, Teheran has struggled with increasing student and labor unrest. Authorities have been concerned that the United States would finance Iranian dissidents to undermine the mullah regime.

Tala'i also said authorities would expand their auxiliary forces. The police commander said 1 million people would be trained to become "honorary policemen."

After five years in his post, Tala'i is to be replaced by Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan. Radan served as commander during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The Sturmabteilung by any other name is still the same, Mahmoud

Iranian's mission possible: Drive the U.S. out of Iraq

From you know who subscription required..commented and excerpted

Mostafa Chamran has been ordered by the Iranian leadership to drive the U.S.-led military coalition out of Iraq. Chamran heads an effort to train the Mahdi Army and a range of new insurgency groups to undermine Iraqi stability and increase U.S. casualties.

Chamran is no stranger to violence and terror. He is Iran's leading liaison with terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, including Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad.

A pioneering commander in the mullah regime, Chamran oversees training of terrorists in Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, Iraq and other Arab countries. Chamran reportedly targeted such countries as Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Gulf Arab states with a large Shi'ite population, for instability in Iran's drive to increase its influence throughout the region.

Chamran's latest mission is to increase the capability of Shi'ite militias, Western intelligence sources said. These militias, equipped with new lethal bombs, have been trained to destroy their Sunni rivals and accelerate a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

Chamran surrounds himself with the best of terrorists from Hizbullah to train the Mahdi Army and offshoots. He has been bolstered by Hizbullah's experience against the U.S.-equipped Israeli military, mauled by the Lebanese militia in the war in Lebanon in August.

So who do we have doing this, countering this? Richard Armitage?

Where are our sons of bitches?

Iraq better off under Saddam, says Blix

Former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on Wednesday described the United States-led invasion of Iraq as a "pure failure" that had left the country worse off than under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

In unusually harsh comments to Danish newspaper Politiken, the diplomatic Swede said the US government had ended up in a situation in which neither staying nor leaving Iraq were good options.

"Iraq is a pure failure," Blix was quoted as saying. "If the Americans pull out, there is a risk that they will leave a country in civil war. At the same time, it doesn't seem that the United States can help to stabilise the situation by staying there."Blix said the situation would have been better if the war had not taken place.

"Saddam would still have been sitting in office. Okay, that is negative and it would not have been joyful for the Iraqi people. But what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse," he was quoted as saying.

Blix led the UN inspectors that searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003. He came under heavy fire from Washington when he urged US President George Bush to allow the weapons inspectors and the International Atomic Energy Agency to continue their work as a way to stave off a war.

Imagine if someone like this had been a world leader in 1942.
"Yes Hitler would still be in his office, and that would be somewhat unpleasant for those hebes, homos, retards, and gypsies, but look at all the dead now !"

A PLAGUE ON THE UNCIVIL, INCONSIDERATE LOAD OF YOU

ALLEN'S REVENGE: EXPOSES UNDERAGE SEX SCENES IN OPPONENT'S NOVELS

Enough.

What the fuck do you STAND FOR?

Utter morons

Argentine lawyer asks to jail Iran officials for Jewish center blast

Argentine prosecutors on Wednesday asked a federal judge to issue an arrest warrant against former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed scores of people.

From Haaretz:

Prosecutor Alberto Nisman told a news conference that the decision to attack the center "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran."

Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral had no public comments f9-09wing the news conference by Nisman and fellow prosecutor Marcelo Martinez Burgo. The judge, under Argentine law, is allowed an indefinite amount of time to accept or reject the recommendations.
The two prosecutors urged the judge to seek international and national arrest orders for Rafsanjani, who was Iran's president between 1989 and 1997.

They also asked the judge to detain several other former Iranian
officials, including a former intelligence chief, Ali Fallahijan, and former Foreign Minister Ali Ar Velayati.

After
Hizballah
Iran
Outright mass murder
Any Questions?

Who Betrayed Lebanon? And Who Watched it Happen?

The American Thinker ..thinks clearly ..in a stellar fisking
***or abacadabra ..we hate ourselves and the jews ..nomatter what because we actually have a mental disease, and that' swhy we can do away with facts ..they don't fit the sickness dialectic***

In the vision of certain members of the press, Israel is a colonialist mass murderer, and the word terrorist does not exist without quotation marks surrounding it. Israelis are aggressors. Islamist terrorists, be they Palestinians or Iranian backed Hezb’allah, are victims. These media types come to the Middle East with their narrative firmly in place. It is so because they believe it to be so. I was an eyewitness to a classic example of this in Jenin, in 2002. Western journalists and United Nation envoys were in an uproar over an alleged Israeli massacre of a thousand Palestinians. There were grisly, supposed eyewitness, accounts of Israeli bulldozers shoveling hundreds of corpses of helpless Palestinian refugees into mass graves. There were stories of Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian children in front of their parents and then throwing their bodies into wells and sewage pits.

Comparisons were made to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, to Nazi war crimes and the term genocide was spoken with righteous indignation. The truth turned out to be somewhat less Baroque. There was a battle not a massacre.

In that battle some fifty Palestinian combatants were killed, as were twenty three Israeli soldiers. The battle was a ferocious one and in the Arab press there were glowing tales of the fifty Palestinian fighters who fell in glorious combat against the Zionist enemy they valiantly slaughtered. But to the majority of Western journalists the facts became a footnote on the inside pages, reported weeks after the front page banner line headlines screamed about the supposed massacre.

Nondescript....AP....

The word you are thinking of is mentioned ONCE .. and to note that some of these high energy, rambunctious youths, are indeed, ...well, you know... what we really shouldn't say in case there might some upset at the thought of profiling racism, REALITY

Youths forced passengers off three buses and set them on fire overnight in suburban Paris, raising tensions Thursday ahead of the first anniversary of the riots that engulfed France's rundown, heavily immigrant neighborhoods.

No injuries were reported, but worried bus drivers refused to enter some suburbs after dark, and the prime minister urged a swift, stern response.

The riots in October 2005 raged through housing projects in suburbs nationwide, springing in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa. Despite an influx of funds and promises, disenchantment still thrives in those communities.

About 10 attackers _ five of them with handguns _ stormed a bus in Montreuil east of Paris early Thursday and forced the passengers off, the RATP transport authority said. They then drove off and set the bus on fire.

Corollary to Michael Yon's Warning

“ I would not be surprised to see a NATO base overrun in Afghanistan in 2007 with all the soldiers killed or captured. And when it happens, how many will claim they had no idea it was so bad and blame the media for failing to raise the alarm? Here it is: WARNING! Troops in Afghanistan are facing slaughter in 2007!

NATO kills 48 insurgents in south Afghanistan

NATO-led troops backed by artillery and airstrikes battled insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 48 suspected militants in three separate confrontations, the alliance said Wednesday, as Afghan police and Western troops elsewhere seized more than 10 tons of marijuana from a truck.

At least four civilians also were wounded in the clashes in Kandahar's Zhari and Panjwayi districts on Tuesday, the alliance said, adding that they were receiving treatment at military medical facilities.

File under: I'm so glad Pakistan is on our side

DISGRACED Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan smuggled several nuclear centrifuges to Dubai that may have been transferred to Iran, a Pakistani military official has admitted.

The P2 nuclear centrifuges were also sent to North Korea, said the official, who did not want to be identified.

Reports in Pakistan yesterday quoted the official, who was speaking in Washington, as saying: "If you ask for an educated and intelligent guess, I would say, yes, they might have been sent to Iran too, but we have no evidence to prove it." Pakistani newspapers said the briefing was intended to reassure the world that Islamabad was not officially involved in the proliferation of nuclear technology

I'm so relieved now, aren't you? Let's have a beer and relax

Galician blogger Alejandro de Llano has told in his blog that he has been charged with the great crime of supporting Israel and being against the Palestinian people.

Welcome to this world ! My name is Winston Smith, and I work for the ministry of Truth....THIS STORY IS REAL, IT'S NOT THE ONION

Two years ago, the Galician nationalist Major of Oleiros (in the photo) began a campaign whose slogan was “Stop the beast. Sharon murderer” and “Stop to new Nazis”. The Major is known for his love for Castro (was watched over by CIA because of hImagen de la camiseta vendida en Oleiros.is friendship with Castro) and Palestinians. The campaign also included T-shirts with Anti-US and anti-Sharon for 6 € and it also pictured US flag in a higyenic paper with the legend “USAme”, which in Spanish is “USE me”. Very respectable.

When questioned about the campaign, the Major said that if the Spanish Government would ask him, he would remove the campaign because he did not want to “disturb the relationships between Governments“. He also said to EFE that he “will detain the campaign if the Government ask him that because of his personal respect to the Government and Moratinos, who has had “a very clean path in these Camisetas antiamericanas que vende el Ayuntamiento de Oleiras.issues“.

So I am flipping around the dial (in a sparse signal for XM area) and I hear Rush Limbaugh's voice mention the word Fox on some derogatory way, and thinking it was Fox News I flipped back only to hear him going off on Michael Fox about his being used by the democrats to falsely accuse the repubs of being FOR diseases and death. Limbaugh, unbelievably, made the day for dems by claiming that Fox was off his meds. Tasteful, Rush. Dumb.

Can we all get more hideous?

Lamont, losing and desperate, accuses Lieberman of being Nixon. Ford (who I hope wins) has some kind of meltdown, when showing up at a press conference being held, BY HIS OPPONENT and demanding something...who cares what ...

Even the SPLC, normally an exemplary organization goes after Tom Tancredo as if he;s some kind of racist, because he is concerned about border security - as race neutral a subject as there can be, and not connected to IMMIGRATION ..except in the minds of those who want their opponents to be racists to make life easy for them.

Lost are the actual issues in the hyperbolic, gross, stupidities, and in the hyperbole are the weaknesses and venalities of both parties right now.

Euro group introduces electronic countermeasures system to protect combat vehicles

LONDON — A leading European defense contractor has begun marketing an anti-tank missile electronic self-protection system.

EADS has been marketing its MUSS multifunctional self-protection system to Europe and the Middle East. MUSS was designed to detect incoming missiles and activate electronic or pyrotechnic countermeasures to prevent a strike. The German army is the first customer. Executives said EADS would supply MUSS for the army's new Puma armored fighting vehicles to defend against guided anti-tank munitions, such as guided missiles, bombs and shells.

It was the first report of a European EW system meant to foil anti-tank missile strikes. Israel and the United States have been developing similar systems.

Under a contract reported on Aug. 14, EADS would equip five prototype Puma vehicles with MUSS. Executives said the system includes missile warning sensors, central computer and electronic or pyrotechnic countermeasures to prevent a strike against armored personnel carriers or main battle tanks.

"The new technologies that we employ here are opening up previously unimagined techniques for protecting armored vehicles from attack, as is already possible for aircraft, helicopters or ships," said Bernhard Gerwert, head of EADS Defense Electronics.

Gertz:

Western intelligence analysts said the North Korean missile launches on July 4 and 5 did not seem connected to Pyongyang's ballistic missile program. They pointed to the aborted flight of the Taepodong-2, meant to have a range of up to 5,000 kilometers.

Instead, the North Korean launch of seven missiles was designed to demonstrate a command and control system. The analysts pointed to the presence of at least 11 senior Iranian engineers at the Taepodong launch pad.

"The development of Taepodong-2 is conducted jointly with Iran, and it is possible China's technology is used in the development of the Taepodong-2 engine," South Korea's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said in a report.

The state-operated institute said Pyongyang has also been working with China and Pakistan to develop the Taepodong-2. The report said the development of the North Korean missile runs parallel to Iran's development of the long-range Shihab-5 and -6.

Yes.., tales of more moderates....Muslim Brotherhood Member Barred from United States..bravo for Chertoff

Newsweek posted an article on MSNBC how an "influential Islamic scholar" from the United Kingdom was prevented from attending a conference at New York University. The story reported that Kamal Helbawy, founder of the Muslim Association of Britain, was removed from a flight in London right before his American Airlines flight was about to take off for New York. Officials at NYU Law School, which had organized the conference, were aghast. Paul Cruickshank, a fellow at the law school's Center for Law and Security was quoted as saying, “He’s a really respected guy,” Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center, protested the decision to bar Helbawy, "It looks like they are afraid of the words that are going to come out of somebody’s mouth.” Helbawy claimed in the Newsweek story that he has condemned terrorism "thousands of times."

Well, let's go to the videotape. Helbawy appeared at a conference of the Muslim Arab Youth Association in December 1992. I was there. And here are excerpts from the speech he made recorded on videotape:

“Do not take Jews and Christians as allies, for they are allies to each other.”

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test, declaring that its action posed "a clear threat to international peace and security."

The vote came after the United States, Britain and France overcame last-minute differences with Russia and China.

The resolution demands North Korea eliminate all its nuclear weapons but expressly rules out military action against the country - a demand by the Russians and Chinese. The Americans also eliminated a complete ban on the sale of conventional weapons; instead, the resolution limits the embargo to major hardware such as tanks, warships, combat aircraft and missiles.

For some reason unknown to me, and not in settings, all comments have been treated as junk. I have adjusted some spam rejection settings, an "UNJUNKED" comments. This affected over 50 comments.

I will check 'junk' regularly and set your comments back if they end up there, but normally I beleive in no censorship whatsoever

Stats overnight show 16 visits from Semiplatinsk -Thanks for stopping in....

Iran's leading dissident mullah reaches out to the pope, brands ruling clerics spiritual lightweights

GERTZ...

Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi could be the hope of Western efforts to replace the jihad regime in Iran. But the United States and its allies are worried about Boroujerdi because he is a devout Shi'ite cleric who wants Iran to remain a theocratic country.

For the past 14 years, Boroujerdi has been persecuted by the mullah regime in Teheran. He has been imprisoned and tortured numerous times. His supporters continue to be arrested and jailed in Teheran's notorious Evin prison.

Unlike pro-Western dissidents, Boroujerdi is seen as genuine threat to the regime. He has genuine authority among tens of thousands of supporters. At the same time Boroujerdi, who has appealed for help from Pope Benedict XVI and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, advocates separation of religion and state.

Iranian authorities seized two mosques under Boroujerdi's control. As late as June 30, he held a rally for thousands of people in Teheran's Shahid Keshvari stadium, which alarmed the authorities and led to the current crackdown.

In August, authorities surrounded Boroujerdi's house to prevent contact with his disciples and arrested and imprisoned more than 100 key followers. Others have been fired from their jobs in an attempt to pressure the ayatollah.

"It made the establishment think that if they don't stop me, then there will be millions of people [supporting me]," Boroujerdi said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "So they began harassing me; they surrounded my house for two months."

Gertz....

WASHINGTON — Following its war with Israel, Hizbullah is no longer considered merely a terrorist organization.

Officials said the intelligence community and State Department have concluded that Hizbullah has evolved into a hybrid of a military force in Lebanon and an international terrorist group.

Support and sponsorship by Iran and Syria made Hizbullah the most lethal non-state actor in the Middle East.

"[On Oct. 9, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that Hizbullah received from Iran missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers. The newspaper attributed the information to German intelligence.]

Hizbullah's performance in the 34-day war against Israel exceeded projections by the U.S. intelligence community, which believed that Hizbullah would seek a ceasefire within a week of fighting.

Frank Urbancic Jr., principal deputy coordinator of the State Department's Counterterrorism Office, told the House Subcommittee on Middle East and Central Asia on Sept. 28 that Hizbullah could be compared to an "octopus with the head in southern Lebanon and tentacles moving around the world." He said Iran and Syria were responsible for Hizbullah's supply and support.

So what is the plan? Hello?

Muslim leader fears backlash over Liberal views

The new president of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) says she is feeling the wrath of Islamic fundamentalists because of her stance on such issues as terrorism, homosexuality and religious law.

Now, Mississauga's Farzana Hassan Shahid is calling on Queen's Park to intervene. She wants Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant to incorporate the kind of threats made by various radical groups against her and other members of the MCC into the framework of existing hate crime laws.

"There is an underlying fear all the time...that uneasy feeling is part of my daily life," Hassan Shahid told The News. "I have been declared an apostate (a person who forsakes their religion) twice, for opposing the Sharia (a form of Islamic law). We have asked Michael Bryant to include or acknowledge accusation of blasphemy and apostasy into the existing hate laws so the public and legal frame work is sensitized to this issue."

Hassan Shahid said she and other members of her organization receive threatening e-mails and are subjected to other acts of hatred from radical Muslim groups. One strongly worded hate-mail accused her of being the, "younger sister of Satan."

Freedom of thought = apostasy?
Is that all there is to be while these freaks are about?

No doubt there are those who would say that pointing out that freedom of thought is apostasy is to increase the power of radical Islam by enraging the salafist and khomeinist freaks...to me that would be like saying to expose David Duke is to spread the influence of the KKK.

Here's how it worked.....

Jews build greenhouses doing the work....

Israel announces it will leave Gaza ...then....

American Jewish philanthropists contributed $14 million to buy former Gaza settlers’ greenhouses for Palestinians, a news report said yesterday.

Without the funds, the Jewish settlers would have destroyed the greenhouses to keep them out of Arab hands as they were forced out of Gaza Strip, The New York Times said.

The greenhouses provide jobs for 3,500 Palestinians and had been a lucrative market for fresh produces for Jewish settlers.

The Times said Mortimer B. Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and a real estate tycoon, last week got a request from former World Bank head James D. Wolfensohn to raise money in order to save the greenhouses. Zuckerman sent out word to Jewish organisations in the United States for help.

Within 48 hours, he received $14 million. Wolfensohn, who contributed $500,000 of his own, is the international envoy to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

He represents the sponsors of the so-called road map for Mideast peace — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the UN.

The Gaza pullout is part of the quartet’s peace plan.

The private fundraising efforts to buy the greenhouses spread quickly and got US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s support.

She called donors and thanked them for helping the peace process in the Middle East, The Times said.

and then...............

Qassams hit town after five days of calm, one lands near bus. Resident: 'It's a disgrace that the IDF does nothing', another two Qassams land near kibbutzim in area

Despite the IDF's intense activity in the Gaza Strip, the firing if Qassam rockets toward Israel continues. Two Qassams were fired at the town of Sderot Thursday morning. One rocket landed in town, while the other fell in an open field outside of Sderot. Residents reported of a particularly loud explosion. No injuries or damage were reported in the strike.

Another two Qassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip landed near the Gabim and Nir Am kibbutzim, police said.

A facility used to store agricultural produce was damaged but no one was injured.

The rocket that hit inside Sderot landed nearby a bus that was driving local residents to a trip in the north. One of the passengers told Ynet: "We were about to pick up one of the families when we heard a loud blast. The rocket landed about 50 meters from the bus. Panic broke out inside the bus, there were families with children there."

He added that the bus driver, who is not a Sderot resident, was terrified. "He told me, 'I've been through wars and only now do I realize the reality you live in'."

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddddddddd.....

Amid a wearying George Bush’s (have you looked and listened to him carefully ..to the WAY he sounds and appears?) embattled stubborn Iraq policy signs of a strategic American policy surrender to ‘reality’ foretell Somalia in 1993, writ large and engraved in granite and video which will brand the scene at 22 Gia Long Street the modern epitaph for the American people, poorly lead, and willing to accept mediocre leadership, but who would have responded to the call HAD IT BEEN MADE.

Make no mistake, what is happening right now is the abandonment of Jefferson for this world. Spreading freedom, and seeing it as a model for change is going to be abandoned in a retreat to promoting STABILITY as the only workable outcome for the 'brutish' children of the middle east. Saddam was a stable government. That policy has another endpoint as well. Iran has a stable goverment. China has a stable government. Syria has been stable for a long time. So is KSA. Shall we promote the Al Saud? Is that all there is? If so, better, IMHO to make a fortress america and turn our back on the lot, and follow Washington's farewell dictum. A nice dream, but not possible in this world.

What shall we stand for? America stands for stability ! YAY for the flag, eh? Dream on. Worse still, if real democracy cannot serve to blunt jihadism (that is if we are not willing to do what it takes to achieve that end), then the american populace needs a new alarm clock.

We will stand for nothing . There will be an evaporation of morale, and purpose.

Bush has called in James Baker who wouldn’t touch Iraq though they had despoiled Kuwait and were utterly defeated, long before any Al Qaeda existed. Was there ever a real belief that Saddam would obey the UN in 1991? More than today over NoKo? Has diplomacy, (USSR USA excluded) EVER achieved security? Such ideas may have worked the year after the USSR dissolved, and at the beginning of the 'end of history', but this is not then.

Condi has become a card carrying member of the state department, subsumed in moral equivalence

John Bolton is reduced to trying to tell the public that what is going on in the UN with North Korea will accomplish something.

A new U.S. draft Security Council resolution circulated Thursday night would authorize only non-military sanctions against North Korea and require a new U.N. resolution for any further action, a key demand of China.

The draft, obtained by The Associated Press would only allow non-military sanctions such as economic penalties, breaking diplomatic relations or banning air travel.

It also eliminates a previously proposed blanket arms embargo. And it urges North Korea to speedily implement a September 2005 agreement in which it pledged to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

Claude Rains need to reappear so he can be our new UN Ambassador.
What a waste of space !!
Someone use the continuum transfunctioner !

UK minister says Guantanamo Bay "unacceptable"

LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett launched one of the British government's sharpest attacks on Guantanamo Bay on Thursday, saying the U.S. prison camp was ineffective and damaging.

"The continuing detention without fair trial of prisoners is unacceptable in terms of human rights. But it is also ineffective in terms of counter-terrorism," Beckett said at the launch of her department's annual human rights report.

"It is widely argued now that the existence of the camp is as much a radicalising and discrediting influence as it is a safeguard to security," she added.

And it is widely argued you have the intellect of a headless toad. They hated us a millenium before Guantanmo.

In response, Washington said it looked forward to the camp's closure but emphasised the need to house dangerous suspects.

Silly bovine !
These are not car thieves awaiting trial.
These are not prisoners of war.

These are men taken in war OUTSIDE the mechanism of the western conscience's ability to imagine. These are men who PURPOSE is to kill the innocent as both strayegy and tactic, and to do so while miming innocence. These are men whose design is to frustrate those processes we have built to protect the falsely accused.

THE Government withdrew its support from Britain’s largest Muslim organisation yesterday after accusing it of failing to lead the fight against religious extremism.

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, attacked the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) for boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day, criticising police anti-terrorist operations and “sitting on the sidelines” in the campaign against extremists.

Lock and load toots !

Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the MCB, was invited to hear Ms Kelly’s speech, which was delivered to a Muslim audience, but refused to attend.

Ms Kelly said that she was embarking on “a fundamental rebalancing” of the Government’s relationship with Muslim organisations.

Until now ministers have viewed the MCB, which represents 400 organisations and hundreds of mosques around the country, as the most important voice among Britain’s two million Muslims.

But Ms Kelly said that in future she would engage with and give funding to organisations that represented young Muslims and Muslim women and which were taking a “proactive leadership role in tackling extremism and defending our shared values”.

RUSSIA and China are blocking an American plan to mount international inspections of all cargoes entering and leaving North Korea for fear of provoking a military showdown

North Korea underlined the concerns by saying yesterday that it would regard such sanctions as an act of war. Pyongyang threatened “physical measures”, including a second nuclear test, unless Washington ceased to confront it. President Bush said that he had “no intention of attacking” the isolated Stalinist regime and that he would pursue “all diplomatic efforts” in response to North Korea’s first atomic explosion. “Diplomacy hasn’t run its course, and we’ll continue working to give diplomacy a full opportunity to succeed,” he said. But he made it clear that President Kim Jong Il must face “serious repercussions” for sparking the world’s latest nuclear crisis.

The repercussions envisaged by Mr Bush were being contested by Russia and China as they outlined their positions on a new Security Council resolution that could be adopted as early as tomorrow.

Without cooperation by China, their entire border, slightly less than 1000 miles would become the focal point of export of EVERYTHING, No Dong, BM25's, Centrifuge technology, plutonium refining equipment, fake $100's ...the works.

It gets worse.

Well judging by the emails, I appear to have really drawn my fingernails across the blackboard.

People are exorcised I have denigrated the repubs.
Let's therefore measure those in power at all times against the winners in our past.
Winning is the exit strategy, not because america loves winners, but because winning means we have handed off and protected those values handed to us against all enemies foreign and domestic.

What was the pattern among military and political leaders when faced with mediocrity?
Who wins these trials of societies, and civilizations? What does it take?

What does it take to win?

Ernest J King, the personification of the admiral as a son of a bitch

This man was universally hated by his subordinates, and FDR said of him he 'shaves with blowtorch' . He was said to have a very even demeanor, 100% angry, 100% of the time.His regard towards those he reagarded as fools is legend

Get used to the idea of impeachment hearings and even more acrimonius debates about Iraq.

Get used to the idea that we will, via a House Ways and Means Committee jamming up the budget, be compelled to remove our troops to save their lives since they will have no money. Get used to the idea that the ensuing cataclysmically failed state (either the entire of what since 1920 has been Iraq, or parts thereof) will be the subject of gargantuan epochal finger pointing.

Get used to the idea of 2+ years of control of the motive portion of the democratic party by those who believe the USA was formed BAD, to BE BAD, to be the nation of the priveledged few, despoiling both those workers here, and now all over.

And the fault for this will lie with the Republicans.
The republicans, who faced no accountability in Tora Bora, who faced no accountabililty as Iraq turned in a carnival of looting and armory raiding, who refused to enforce responsibility on the army structure which lead to abuses, who faced no responsibility and unpleasantness when they KNEW FOR YEARS about the great moron Foley, and who continue with mediocrity and sub par performances in leadership positions at a moment of national peril.

The video "reveals hatred toward the Prophet who came to the world with a message to enlighten the people" ..and the message?

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the Prophet Muhammad were pulled from Web sites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against travel to much of the Middle East.Muslim clerics from Egypt and Indonesia condemned the video broadcast in Denmark last week showing members of the Danish People's Party youth wing with cartoons of a camel wearing the head of Muhammad and beer cans for humps. A second drawing placed a turbaned, bearded man next to a plus sign and a bomb, all equaling a mushroom cloud.

Citing critical media reports from many Muslim regions, the Foreign Ministry cautioned against travel to Gaza, the
West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt,
Iraq,
Iran,
Syria and Turkey.

"Against that background, we urge Danes to use caution as the matter could possibly lead to negative reactions. The atmosphere and reactions can vary dependent on time and place. Danes should be aware of the local mood," the ministry said.

The video was produced by an artists' group, Defending Denmark. In a message posted along with the video, the group said it had infiltrated the Danish People's Party Youth, known as DFU, for 18 months "to document (their) extreme right wing associations."

"This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics," artist Martin Rosengaard Knudsen told Danish public radio.

The clip was removed from that broadcaster's Web site Monday, as well as from a newspaper's site.

At the National Press clus today Ted Turner said he both couldn't pick a side in the war on terror and that the american flag has no place in the news or thru the media.

I guess THIS GUY WAS A WASTE OF LIFE THEN, YOU PUTZ

Russia delivers second missile ship to China

Russia has delivered a second advanced Sovremenny guided missile destroyer to China that will boost Chinese naval power and give Beijing greater capabilities to attack U.S. aircraft carriers.

The destroyer was built in a St. Petersburg shipyard and transferred to the Chinese navy on Sept. 28.

A first ship was transferred to China in late 2005.

The ships are part of a $1.4-billion deal signed in 2002.

Strictly a coincidence

Outspoken Putin critic shot dead in Moscow

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said.

"According to initial information she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters. Police found a pistol and four rounds in the lift.

Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won international fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya.

"The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed for her professional activities. We don't see any other motive for this terrible crime," said Vitaly Yaroshevsky, a deputy editor of the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked.Moscow chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin told reporters at the crime scene, a nine-story Soviet-era apartment building in central Moscow, that he was treating the death as murder.

DUH

Speaking of how the USA was slammed over Abu Ghreib, and how the ('fascistic') govt complained abotu the manifest coverage etc, wellll.....

In the days before her death, Politkovskaya had been working on a story about torture in Chechnya, which was expected to be published on Monday, her newspaper said.

To my knowledge nobody got killed in their apartment building while preparing a report on how awful the USA is

It's 550 Tons, no it's 15,000 (according the Russkis ...and much more likely IMHO)...WHO CARES?

Japan seems pissed off, and South Korea is calling for the 'strongest sanctions' (to what, starve the starving, impoverish the poor, set back those who don't even know there is a forward?), and even China (if the news can be believed) is pissed.

Big Deal

This will last until the moment plans start to be made and then no one will want to committ an act except to send mean letters written by Kofi.

Even Condi, now clearly co opted by the oatmeal swamp of the US State Dept where all points of view are treated as equal for negotiating purposes, has embarrassed herself with Abbas in Palestine and Hamas. Just wet your pants at a worldwide press conference, Condi, it would render you no more ridiculous and out of place than what you did last week.

So what is the american and (cough, laugh splutter) international plan for the "unacceptable" North Korean act?

Pulllleeeezeeeee !

In 1994 a Contract with America swept out a long term democratic dominance in Congress?

Conventional wisdom? Was it the James Dobsons, Pat Robertson, Falwellian revolution? The nutroot critical progressives claim that the 'christianists' have hijacked the government and have warped a religous right fascism out the whole project.

The religious right claim the nutroots are the godless traitors and secular abortionists.

Add to this the Foley debacle where a semi pedophile and at least sexual predator with no self control caused more repub stupidity and incompetence in leadership to be exposed, AND the continuing almost permament mistrust of americans with the democratic party over national security, and the first tuesday in November becomes anything can happen day.

But what is the electorate?
How did the great turnabout from FDR-HST-KENNEDY to REAGAN-BUSH-BUSH occur and why?

VIETNAM and faith, and not just faith in God, but faith in the founding brothers and their ideals

1: Hizbullah's use of C-802 cruise missile sets precedent for terror groups

2: Al Qaida using Iraq as proving ground for recruits, explosives

3: Hizbullah stockpiling rockets in Lebanon's refugee camps

4: Israeli military charges Egypt secretly backing huge arms smuggling network

Hizbullah's use of C-802 cruise missile sets precedent for terror groups
The U.S. military has deemed Hizbullah a major threat in the Middle East after the Central Command studied Hizbullah's military capabilities following its 34-day war against Israel, which ended on Aug. 14.

"I believe this is the first time we've seen a terrorist group use this kind of capability." Gulf Times
Officials said the most worrisome aspect of Hizbullah was its use of advanced Iranian weaponry. They included the attack on an Israel navy corvette on July 14 with a Chinese-origin C-802 cruise missile. Hizbullah fired C-802s on at least three occasions, and in one case missed an Israeli corvette but struck and sank a Cambodian-flagged merchant ship.

Central Command believes that Iran would use Hizbullah in any confrontation with the United States. Officials envision Iran supplying Hizbullah with the most advanced tactical weapons, which could include nonconventional warheads. The C-802 is regarded as one of the most effective missiles in the world.

"It should not be lost on us, for example, that Hizbullah fields greater and longer-range weapons than most regional armed forces," Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Aug. 3. "If left unchecked, it is possible to imagine chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons being transferred to militias or terrorist organizations by a state actor."

Officials said Hizbullah's capabilities meant U.S. Navy ships could never patrol the eastern Mediterranean without armed escort or heightened security. The C-802 anti-ship cruise missile, with a range of about 120 kilometers and an explosive payload of up to 165 kilograms, requires a shore-based radar for over-the-horizon targeting.

Gertz...

As part of what has been regarded a Shi'ite power struggle, an Iranian-sponsored insurgent has been leading death squads in nightly orgies of torture and killing throughout Baghdad. The effort by Abu Dera has been so brutal that even the most hardened of Shi'ite militia leaders have ordered him to stop.

But Abu Dera hasn't, and he is believed to be largely responsible for the death of thousands of Sunnis every month in the Baghdad area. The method is the same: abduction, torture and a bullet to the head. Baghdad's morgues are overflowing with corpses.

"Abu Dera is the new Shi'ite hero," a U.S. official said. "He fights blood with more blood."

Abu Dera has been based in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad. Sadr City is not a neighborhood. It contains 2 million residents is the leading source of fire against U.S. troops in the Baghdad area. Not long ago, Abu Dera was a member of the Al Mahdi Army, the Iranian-sponsored militia headed by Moqtada Sadr. But Sadr has gone mainstream and his followers are ministers in the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

What's wrong with this picture? Sadr is the moderate alternative? Has the baseline shifted so far that someone who should have been dead immediately after Khoei was murdered is now HELPING? Anyone think he has seen the light? What are we doing? Has mission creep among a radicalized nation in an incipient civil war warped the entire thing?

Tainan yesterday was the scene of another horrific explosion by the now familiar south asians.

The bomber, Hamid Ibn Abdullah, a member of the Martrdom General Command of Fallujah Death Squads, showered the entire city centre with rotting body parts.

Abbas Tells US PA Will Recognize Israel, Says Opposite on PA TV , and Condi sings his praises?

Abbas convinced U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he is sincere in his commitment to force the PA government to formally acknowledge the Jewish State’s right to exist, said the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Thursday.

On PA TV, however, Abbas said “It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel.” Abbas is the head of the Fatah party and terror organization, which is currently the minority faction in the PA legislature.

“I do not demand of Hamas nor any other to recognize Israel,” said Abbas in Arabic, “but from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes.”

Rice said she was impressed with the PA leader’s political acumen after their meeting this week. “We have great admiration for you and your leadership,” she said, and committed the U.S. to “redouble efforts” to help PA Arabs.

The PMW is a watchdog organization that monitors Arabic-language media throughout the world and issues a report once a week on its findings.

Iran’s dance to avoid sanctions involved secret deal with Europe

Iran sought to keep secret its suspension of uranium enrichment as part of a deal with Europe for renewed talks, but the effort was scuttled after it was disclosed by Bush administration officials opposed to the plan. As a result, talks on the nuclear issue failed to reach an agreement.European negotiator Javier Solana met last Wednesday in Berlin with Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and sought to conclude a deal that would have had Iran secretly suspend uranium enrichment and return to talks.

The deal was being supported by those in the State Department who favor the European appeasement-oriented approach towards Iran and was opposed by conservatives who say sanctions should not be put off any longer.

Under the deal, Iran would have announced that it was temporarily halting uranium enrichment work and would have couched the halt as a result of technical problems with the enrichment program.

Treachery. Plain and simple. Why doesn't the Bush admin name names? What will they do, work against us?

Ukraine sells Iran strategic radar systems designed to detect U.S. stealth aircraft

MOSCOW — Iran has ordered and acquired several advanced anti-aircraft systems from the Ukraine.

Russian industry sources said the Ukraine has sold an undetermined number of Kolchuga anti-aircraft radar systems to Iran. The Kolchuga passive-detection systems are capable of spotting enemy aircraft up to 800 kilometers away.

The sources said Kolchuga would enhance Iran's air defense umbrella. At least 10 such systems were sold at $25 million each, they said.

Besides Israel and a very shaky Britain, and Australia who can the USA DEPEND ON?

Franklin Roosevelt had his first hundred days. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is thinking 100 hours, time enough, she says, to begin to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule.

As in the first 100 hours the House meets after Democrats — in her fondest wish — win control in the Nov. 7 midterm elections and Pelosi takes the gavel as the first Madam Speaker in history.

Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."

Who can disagree?

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Who can disagree? But the commission gave A+ to the Bush admin for it's financial cut off and tracking of terrorist money as a result of FISA and SWIFT tracking, something MS Pelosi considers illegal, so what are we talking about?

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Who can disagree? But as someone in cardiovascular research since 1987, how will you prevent the US from becoming like Britain, a desert for new research? Or are you planning to be a parasite off foreign advancements?

Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds — "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.

Who can disagree?

All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.

To do that, she said, Bush-era tax cuts would have to be rolled back for those above "a certain level." She mentioned annual incomes of $250,000 or $300,000 a year and higher, and said tax rates for those individuals might revert to those of the Clinton era. Details will have to be worked out, she emphasized.

"We believe in the marketplace," Pelosi said of Democrats, then drew a contrast with Republicans. "They have only rewarded wealth, not work."

"We must share the benefits of our wealth" beyond the privileged few, she added.

Most of this sounds ok, but since her foreign policy ideas are appeaseology, since her committee chairmen have all expressed their need for a scourge, impeachment hearings, and generalized 'fighting beneath the walls of Byzantium', and since demands for specific policy ideas to resist the war being foisted upon us continue to look like "Dancing with the Stars" I cannot pull the lever for a SINGLE DEMOCRAT, despite ANY OF IT

Several months back I lightly described a great dinner in which there was a first sensing of my neolithic leanings among the intellectual and academic, and btw, wonderful people we hang with.

Last night I was priveledged to be at a more formal gathering (at which the entire group was jewish, and believe me when I tell you academically AND professionally accomplished) which began when one member was invited to comment on inspirations he felt at the recent Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) service. There were three, and the last was related to a meeting with Bishop Desmond Tutu, who apparently expressed his disappointment with the american people for their lack of outrage over the tortures visited upon ????? (enter victim name) by the Bush admin.

This caused a general expression of quizzicalness around the table with the lack of the same outrage and an assumption at the table that this represented a consensus. The consensus was, in my mind that Bush was promulgating torture, that we were torturing, that the recent fight in congress was between those who wanted to torture and those who didn't, and that it was incomprehensible that the american people were not aghast.

These are all first rate people as both friends and acquaintainces.

The executive of the group as the expressions finally seemed to exhaust themselves, invited at this moment any other feelings.

My lack of self control met the moment.

Jack Straw calls on Muslim women to lift their veils or Kufr calls for blasphemy in muslim area

Jack Straw, the leader of the House of Commons, has called on Muslim women to lift their veils as a way of breaking down barriers between communities.

In a disclosure that risks upsetting Muslims, he says he now asks women to remove their veils when they attend weekly surgeries in his Blackburn constituency.

Mr Straw, a former Foreign Secretary, says that the veil can be regarded as a visible statement of “separation and difference”. Some Muslim scholars do not believe it is obligatory.

In his weekly coumn in the The Lancashire Telegraph he has expressed concern that “wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult”.

Mr Straw said he had been mulling over the issue ever since a veiled woman attended his surgery and said she was pleased to meet him face to face at last.

He wrote: “The chance would be a fine thing, I thought to myself but did not say aloud.”.

The encounter led to thoughts about the “apparent incongruity between the signals which indicate common bonds. Above all, it was because I felt uncomfortable about talking to someone face-to-face who I could not see”.

Steve Emerson, from today's NY Post and Frontpage

King, a Long Island Republican, has warned his constituents that some leaders of the Islamic Center of Long Island have "publicly stated that the CIA or the 'Zionists' may have been behind the attacks" of 9/11.

The record backs him up. Indeed, the center's leadership has a long history of extremism. But both Newsday and CNN chose to ignore the facts and smear King.

Last week's CNN report was one of the most dishonest pieces of reporting I have ever observed in my entire 27-year career. In attacking King, CNN reporter Jason Carroll claimed the congressman had said the members of the Long Island mosque were "part of an Islamic threat that could cause another 9/11."
King has said no such thing; the red herring simply distracts from the real issue - the center's history of employing extremists and defending terrorists.

Ghazi Khankan was an ICLI officer until two years ago, director of both interfaith affairs and communications. Shortly after 9/11, he told the New York Times that the U.S. government hadn't proven Osama bin Laden's role in the attacks: "We need to have proof. We need to have facts. If there is something wrong, let's get together through the United Nations, not act as a lynch mob."

His rant at a fund-raiser in Virginia that October was recorded: "Why is it assumed that Muslims were behind the attack? . . . We know at least three people assumed to be hijackers who are still alive in the Middle East. The question is, who is impersonating these Muslim names? Who benefits from assuming Muslims are behind this tragedy and who benefits from this tragedy?"

Pakistan, Pakistan Pakistan...maybe we should have left no two stones on top of each other. What would they do, HATE US?

Suicide bombers brainwashed in Pakistan, says Afghan spy agency

KABUL - Would-be suicide bombers detained in Afghanistan claim they have been brainwashed and equipped by Arab, Chechen and Uzbek militants in Pakistan, the Afghan intelligence service said Wednesday.

The claims were from 17 attackers who were arrested in the past month before they had the chance to strike, Sayed Ansari, the spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security told reporters.

Pakistan, which like Afghanistan is a key US ally in the “war on terror”, has repeatedly denied the existence of militant training facilities on its soil.

“All of the detained have confessed they received training for suicide attacks, attacks against schools and institutions from Arab, Chechen and Uzbek instructors on the other side of the border (Pakistan),” said Ansari.

Did Iraqi ops take out jetliner? "I KNOW THE F***ING TRUTH," the one confirming source e-mailed me

Let me start with a confession. After five years of research, I still do not know for sure who fired the missiles that resulted in the destruction of TWA Flight 800 off the cost of Long Island July 17, 1996. Whatever the exact scenario, I do believe, however, that there was terrorist involvement. And the more evidence I see, the more I believe that Iraq was among those involved.

An eye-opening article in the October American Spectator by Harvard Ph.D. and former Clinton adviser on Iraq Laurie Mylroie sheds some new light on the issue. Although she does not talk about TWA Flight 800 in this article, Mylroie has in the past. In this article, she focuses on the extraordinary KSM "family," the most likely operatives behind the plane's destruction.

Muslim police officer was excused from guarding London's Israeli Embassy after he objected to the duty on 'moral grounds'

Sir Ian Blair has ordered an 'urgent inquiry' after a Muslim police officer was excused from guarding London's Israeli Embassy after he objected to the duty on 'moral grounds'.

Sir Ian said: "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances."

PC Alexander Omar Basha - a member of the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group - refused to be posted there because he objected to Israeli bombings in Lebanon and the resulting civilian casualties of fellow Muslims.

In a move which has caused widespread astonishment at Scotland Yard, senior officers in the DPG agreed that that PC Basha should be given an alternative posting.

The officer, who carries a gun, is now thought to be guarding another embassy.

Hope it's not ours !

This total moron should be a rent a cop, and the idiot who approved this change needs to review the words "PUBLIC SERVANT"

If true then this is ....

Frist: Taliban should be in Afghan gov't

By JIM KRANE Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

QALAT, Afghanistan — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" and their allies into the government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield."You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

According to an Associated Press count, based on reports from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, at least 2,800 people have been killed nationwide so far this year. The count, which includes militants and civilians, is about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005.

I guess he bases this on the number of KKK elected to congress in 1904. What a moron he has been revealed to be!

Can this be true?

Remember the story of the bief standoff between the French and Israeli tankers?

Here's one reality ...It's Debka ..

The south Lebanese village of Merwahin was the stage Thursday, Sept 28 of the first near-showdown between UN and Israeli forces. DEBKAfile publishes here the first photo of an encounter between 4 French Leclerc and at least 5 Israeli Merkava tanks in that Lebanese village.

Despite the photographic evidence, Israel officially denies the incident. DEBKAfile reports the French force sought to prevent the Israeli unit from combing through the Hizballah-dominated village in search of the raiders who crossed into Israel and broke into the IDF’s Kibbutz Shomera arms store last week. They made off with a large quantity of side-arms, anti-tank weapons, LAU rockets and hundreds of combat grenades, which the Israeli force was determined to recover.

American and German correspondents who witnessed the incident report that the two tank units held menacing positions 50 meters apart for about half an hour, after which the French tanks broke off contact and turned tail.

C'est IMPOSSIBLE! Ratrait, pour les francais ? IMPOSSIBLE !

The French commander claims the Israel tanks retreated first. DEBKAfile’s military sources note that this was the second incidence of French backing for Hizballah. On Sept 22, French fighter jets were seen cruising in Beirut’s skies above the podium of Hassan Nasrallah’s “victory speech.” He boasted then that he was not afraid to address the masses directly instead of through armored glass.

Imagine, the French protecting hizballah killers who had just done some weapons thieving, inside Israel ...it's just too hard to believe, non, mes amis?

PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia's left-wing intelligentsia, questioning its loyalty to the nation over the past decades.

In a speech delivered last night for the 50th anniversary of the conservative magazine Quadrant, Mr Howard said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq, describing Islamic terrorism as the new tyranny.

He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as “ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests”, Fairfax reports today.

Mr Howard said the left was wrong in its view that the Cold War was an equal struggle between the ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union.

“It became the height of intellectual sophistication to believe that people in the West were no less oppressed than people under the yoke of communist dictatorship,” Mr Howard said in his speech.

Mr Howard praised Quadrant for its record of countering “stultifying orthodoxies and dangerous utopias that have, at times, gripped the Western intelligentsia”

.

UPDATE BELOW on continue reading

I just can't help but feel that even though I DO NOT believe that Mr. Hastert is engaged in a cover up, and even though it s probably a fact of law that the moron pervert Foley did not break the law, since the age of consent in DC is 16, that the errors of poor judgement exhibited by Hastert in at least not stripping Foley of all committee responsibility (which is his right to do) ..says more about the republican leadership than all the baloney going on in the media / election frenzy of progressive lunatics. Hastert knew enough to have executed a zero tolerance policy on congressmen making clearly inappropriate contact with 16-17 year olds, regardless of sex. I can only imagine what I would have said or done as the dad of a son or daughter so contacted, IRREGARDLESS of the gay thing.

The democrats meanwhile had better shut up. Not because the repblicans are no worse, but because they are no better.

Stupidity has no party
Lack of self control has no party
Predatory sexual conduct has no party

Apparently, neither do I have one.

The repubs may have just proven they are too incompetent to make leadership decisions of consequence in congress, in the aggregate, but the democrats have already proven they are worse.

Do I have to quote C3PO?

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-'Aziz: We Will Cut Off Tongues of Those Who Try to Distort Islam With Reform and Progress - They Are Serving the West

Now Nayef is not exactly a paragon of moderation, or western ideals, or a descedent of Locke (Tamiyya, I would think), but after 5+ years, and in world war, and untold deaths, the very INTRACTIBILITY of thought anchored in an "immutable" document again shows the impossibility of change without, as John Brown said in 1860, being washed away in blood. That this is true is not my choice, or the west's, or democrats or republicans or liberals or neo cons, or jews, or crusaders ..it is the unavoidable decision by the guys with the book and the mike.

The following are excerpts from a speech by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-'Aziz, which aired on Al-Majd TV on September 25, 2006.

TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1283.

Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-'Aziz: "Brothers, we are not alone in this world. We are not living on a planet of our own. We are living in the center of this world, with all its good and evil. I say clearly that the evil of this generation is far worse than that of other generations. Everybody should know that our country - because it is the country of Islam, and because it is a country that implements the Koran and the Sunna - is the primary target for the things that are happening in the world."

[...]

"We are being targeted from many directions. I say, with the utmost pain and sorrow, that we are being targeted by those who claim to be Muslims. These people have become preachers, instruments, and implementers of the will of the enemies of Islam, whether knowingly or unknowingly."

[...]

"Jihad is here. We must wage jihad against the enemies of Allah here. The enemies of Allah are in our midst. They claim to be Muslims, although they are as far as can be from Islam. They call themselves 'reformists' or 'preachers,' and say that we support the West. They are hostile to us on these grounds. Yet at the same time, the Westerners and others claim that we are the birthplace of these people. Where are we? Why don't we tell these people who we are? Why don't we argue with them, discuss things with them? Why don't we respond to everything they say? Why don't we restrict the ignorant among us, or even those who think they are Islamic scholars?"

[...]

"The enemies of the Muslims have used Muslims and Arabs to corrupt Islam and the Arabs. I don't think any of you present denies this fact."

Reading the criticism as a result of Woodward's book, one can't but scratch one's head over the Kissinger related issues.

First ..why would an ex secretary of state's visit be considered some kind of gotcha ...if he could .. would Cyrus Vance who helped BOTCH LBJ's vietnam policies, or QUIT over over Jimmy Carter's botched rescue be considered some ill omened evidence of loserdom? Would Dean Rusk or Dean Acheson, or Cordell Hull's visits be some obvious kind of award in gaffedom? Maybe to people who didn't make it back from 1972.

That ain't that, or then, and Zarqouids are not the Vietcong

Next, the smoking gun of this entire thing ... "Victory is the only exit strategy"

How crass to win?
How evil to do those things needed to win?
What bad taste to discusss this with those who HAVE learned the lesson of Vietnam
What is wrong with these people