The Front Page
May 31, 2006
2 Iraqi women killed by coalition troops
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two Iraqi women were shot to death north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired on a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Iraqi police and relatives said one of the women was about to give birth.
A car entered a clearly marked prohibited area near coalition troops at an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings, the U.S. military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
"Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the statement said. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."
The statement said the incident was being investigated.
"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said.
The statement was issued after Iraqi police said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed by American troops while driving to a maternity hospital in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni city 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The shooting deaths occurred in the wake of an investigation into allegations that U.S. Marines killed unarmed civilians in the western city of Haditha.
--- The military has to do better than this. Come on, shots were fired to disable the vehicle... oops, they're dead?Now I know the press eats this up and tries to convince us that the US military is mean and evil, but the military is walking into that trap. In addition to the Haditha incident, this looks really bad. Shooting a pregnant woman and then saying it's "regrettable"? I know they were in a prohibited area, and the soldiers assumed the worst, a possible car bomb or something, and they're tired and cranky, and maybe they followed correct protocol, but damn! They're not excused, even though there are so many forces trying to sabotage our soldiers. It's hard to defend our own soldiers on this one. More facts are needed though.
May 30, 2006
Iraq says it has captured key militant
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government said Tuesday it has captured a key terror suspect who allegedly confessed to hundreds of beheadings. Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi was arrested by a terrorist combat unit on Monday in Baghdad, according to the prime minister's office.
I vas torture!!
The unit also seized documents, cell phones and computers that contained the names and addresses of other wanted terrorists and information on Islamic extremist groups, the government said in a statement.
--- AWESOME DUDES!
"Al-Batawi is considered at the top of the terrorist list," the statement said, adding he had "committed the ugliest crimes against innocent civilians especially in Hurriyah neighborhood that witnessed many massacres."
The government said al-Batawi confessed under questioning that he beheaded hundreds of Iraqis in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.
--- Hundreds of beheadings. Against civilians. Allah made him do it. Meanwhile, the U.N. is concerned that we are torturing Gitmo detainees (what, by not letting them sleep in?). Absolutely no moral equivalence.
May 26, 2006
Standoff leaves Iran clerics on sidelines
AP
QOM, Iran - Iran's most senior clerics filled a lecture hall this month to hear government-picked nuclear experts give a layman's tutorial on reactors, uranium enrichment and what it means for Iran. It also was a lesson in who is advising and guiding Iran's theocrats at one the most critical periods since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The ranks of ayatollahs and lesser clerics — the unofficial brain trust of the Islamic regime — find themselves increasingly sidelined as Iran's priorities shift from internal confrontations with pro-reform groups to geopolitical brinksmanship...
--- Don't ask me what the hell this is all about, but it's fun to analyze.
Iran's all-powerful religious cadre, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is now allowing a complex and pragmatic foreign policy — one that's even sent signals of the possibility of direct talks with the United States after a nearly 27-year diplomatic freeze...
--- Yes, Iran is very pragmatic. That's obvious. Sure.
But Iranian leaders are not seeking the clerics' advice on the nuclear showdown. In a stunning role reversal, the clerics instead have sat through lectures by political affairs analysts and nuclear experts on what's best for the nation.
And for the first time, no one on the international stage for Iran is wearing a turban...
--- Whoopee ding dong! What the hell is the point of all this? So what, Ahmadinejad doesn't wear a turban.
That doesn't mean religious authorities are no longer pulling the strings. Khamenei and his inner circle remain the ultimate authority and must approve all important initiatives, including Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush.
"We're seeing the secularization of Iran's foreign policy," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iranian affairs expert at Syracuse University. "The nuclear crisis has forced Iran to deal with the world in realist terms, not in the purely religious views of the clerics. They've been pushed into the background."
--- The clerics have ultimate authority, except with foreign policy? This filler that is supposed to be some kind of news story gets even more nonsensical.
In Qom — the center of Shiite Muslim study and scholarship in Iran — the nuclear debate has mostly adhered closely to Khamenei's declarations that peaceful nuclear power is a national right, but that nuclear weapons are against Islamic principles. Those views are based on Quranic interpretations that include warnings against uncontrollable war and long-term damage to the environment.
"The most important thing the clerics can do is clarify what's acceptable under Islamic teaching," said Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani, a professor of Islamic law in Qom. "Nuclear weapons cannot be used in an offensive or a defensive war."
--- But suicide bombers, that's fine! Nuclear weapons will damage the environment! Where exactly in the Quran does it say nuclear weapons cannot be used, but strapping a bomb around your waist and detonating in order to kill civilians is acceptable?
There's a well-known contradiction: Muslim Pakistan has nuclear arms. And some fringe scholars associated with hard-line clerics have said that Iran has a right to develop atomic weapons to counter other nuclear powers. In the Middle East, that means Israeli, which is widely believed to have the sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
"Maybe it's not acceptable in Islam," said Hadavi, "but in (some) circumstances, there could be special threats."
--- So they want nuclear arms. No wait, they just want nuclear energy. No, but nuclear arms could be justified under certain circumstances. Oh, the nuance! Such pragmatism! And what a great story! I don't know what it's trying to say, but it sounds good!
Taliban ambush Afghan police, five killed
Reuters
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Three Taliban militants and two policemen were killed in a clash in southwestern Afghanistan on Friday, a provincial official said.
The clash erupted after guerrillas ambushed a convoy of police in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul...
Afghanistan is witnessing its worst spell of violence since U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001 after they refused to hand over Osama bin Laden.
Nearly 300 people have been killed in a series of battles, ambushes and bombings since last week, according to the U.S. military and Afghan officials.
Most of the dead were militants but dozens of Afghan police, soldiers and civilians have also been killed, along with four foreign soldiers.
--- It's good that most of the 300 were Taliban "militants" (how exactly do militants differ from "insurgents"?). It's a resurgence of insurgent intransigence (ha ha!). Mostly militant casualties means we're winning, they're losing, I think. The media doesn't quite report it that way.
May 24, 2006
World powers seek consensus on Iran nuclear offer
Reuters
LONDON - World powers met on Wednesday to seek consensus on a package of incentives and threats aimed at preventing Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb, but there were few hopes of a breakthrough.
--- Try and bribe him, but I don't think this guy will understand anything but violence. Maybe we can just bottle him up. I don't know.
Iran insisted on its right to a full range of nuclear technology while senior officials from U.N. Security Council permanent members China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus Germany, had yet to narrow divisions over how to induce Tehran to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work...
One EU diplomat said it was hard to see what the meeting, which started around midday, could achieve.
"It's really just an academic exercise, since the Iranians have made it clear that they won't accept any offer."
--- Call Hans Blix. He'll bore them into halting uranium enrichment.
Diplomats say they would first discuss targeted sanctions, such as visa bans on Iranian officials involved in the nuclear program, before seeking ways of curtailing trade deals.
But some EU officials, many analysts and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), say efforts to end the crisis would get a big boost if Washington began talking to Iran after 26 years of official silence.
--- Uh, yeah. If we TALK to Iran, they'll be nice?
They believe the only way to entice Iran back to good-faith negotiations and stop it seeking sensitive atomic know-how would be a U.S. pledge not to try to topple Tehran's government, which the Bush administration has labeled ripe for "regime change."
--- Oh sure, it's all our fault. If we just shut up and try to appease them... no wonder Ahmadinejad is laughing.
9 arrested in Britain on terror charges
AP
MANCHESTER, England - Nine people were arrested in Britain on Wednesday on suspicion of providing support to terrorists overseas, police said. Police served warrants at a number of homes in Manchester and elsewhere in Britain beginning at 3 a.m., Greater Manchester Police said.
About 500 officers were involved in the operation, and searches were continuing at several locations, police said.
Police said those arrested were "suspected of facilitating terrorism abroad," but gave no details of the suspected offenses.
--- Send them to America (The Great Satan, for those who aren't following) so we can send them to be tortured in Jordan! Oh wait, England's evil too. They can do it themselves.
New tape returns bin Laden to spotlight
AP
CAIRO, Egypt - The latest tape purportedly released by Osama bin Laden may be an attempt by the al-Qaida chief to regain his eminence in the global terror network and raise his profile overall after being sidelined by insurgents in Iraq, terrorism experts said Wednesday.
In an audio tape posted on the Internet late Tuesday, a speaker claiming to be bin Laden said that neither Zacarias Moussaoui — the only person convicted in the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks — nor anyone held at Guantanamo had anything to do with the al-Qaida operation.
--- He's lonely. Poor scumbag. And he's been listening to Amnesty International.
"I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission," he said, referring to the 19 men who hijacked the four aircraft used in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...
--- Brother, you ain't a star anymore. You're losing.
May 23, 2006
Doublespeak undermines war on terrorism: Amnesty
Reuters
LONDON - Doublespeak by nations like the United States and Britain has undermined their own war on terrorism and increased human rights violations from Colombia to North Korea, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.
Accusations that the United States -- with the complicity of some European nations -- while banning torture at home had been flying prisoners around the world for interrogation by countries with no such qualms had dented their moral authority, it said...
--- Ok, these idiots are apparently the sole judges on human rights in the world. Where they get their moral authority, don't ask me. Are they actually trying to argue that the war on Islamic expansion is causing countries "from Colombia to North Korea" to commit more human rights violations? Talk about doublespeak.
"There is evidence of widespread torture in U.S. detention centers," [secretary general Irene Khan] said. "The United States outsources torture to countries like Morocco, Jordan and Syria."
She said that at least seven European countries had sanctioned or turned a blind eye to the use of their airspace for so-called extraordinary rendition flights carrying prisoners for interrogation outside the United States...
--- They repeat this about once a month, but now they're criticizing those elegant Europeans for being complicit. Yawn.
"There is no doubt the war on terror has given a new lease of life to old-fashioned repression," Khan said. "These governments today do with much greater confidence what they used to do more quietly in the past."
It was not just the invaders of Iraq who bore responsibility for the spiraling violence around the world, Amnesty said. U.N. Security Council members Russia and China had consistently flouted human rights in pursuit of their own agendas...
--- Our invasion of Iraq is responsible for spiraling violence!... Oh yeah Russia and China are bad too by the way.
Next week: The United States and Britain are causing all violence everywhere in the universe!
May 19, 2006
Guantanamo Prison Guards, Inmates Clash
AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday.
The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, Cmdr. Robert Durand said.
Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner trying to hang himself, Durand said.
--- It's all Bush's fault!!!!!!!! If we just put them in expensive hotels and served them caviar this never would have happened.
Word of the clash came as a U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty called on the United States to close the prison.
--- Is al-Qaeda working with the United Nutjobs? Interesting timing.
There have been 39 suicide attempts at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, the military said. At least 12 were by Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney for al-Dossary's, said he visited his client last week and saw scars on his throat and the back of his neck from his most recent attempt in March...
--- 12 unsuccessful attempts! Now how can you kill infidels when you can't even kill yourself?
The lawyer said the suicides reflect the desperation of detainees held for more than four years with no idea when, or if, they will be released.
"Under these circumstances, it's hardly surprising that people become desperate and hopeless enough to attempt suicide," he said.
--- Life's tough for cowardly thugs.
General: Militant May Be Taliban Leader
AP
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces captured a one-legged militant fighter in a battle this week in southern Afghanistan, and it was possible he could be a top Taliban leader, an Afghan general said Friday.
--- I immediately pictured the knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail. "'Tis only a flesh wound!!"
The militant was captured Wednesday in a joint Afghan-coalition operation in Kandahar province, said Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, head of the Afghan military's southern region.
Mullah Dadullah, who lost a leg fighting for the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s, is one of the hard-line militia's top commanders, responsible for operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan.
--- *giggle* Mullah Dadullah? Man, this sounds like a Monty Python sketch!
Neither the U.S.-led coalition nor the Afghan government in Kabul said they could immediately confirm that Dadullah had been captured.
--- Yeah, well we caught somebody anyway, and he's funny so that's good enough for me.
Muslim shot dead, teachers taken hostage in Thailand's restive south
AFP
NARATHIWAT, Thailand - A Muslim man has been shot dead by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive south, while villagers there took 11 teachers hostage to demand the release of suspected insurgents...
Military and police rescued the hostages but two young women teachers, Sirinart Thawornsook, 30, and Chooling Kongkanmool, 26, were badly beaten by villagers with wooden sticks...
--- Beating up two women with clubs... is there something in Islam that says cowardly beatings are Allah's will?
Local government officials, police, military are often targeted by Islamic insurgents but Muslims seen as sympathetic to the government are also attacked. Meanwhile, Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya said the government was still lagging behind insurgents in the area of intelligence, but insisted the situation was improving in general.
A two-year insurgency has left more than 1,200 people dead in the kingdom's insurgency-plagued south.
The region was an independent sultanate until Thailand annexed it a century ago. Separatist violence has simmered ever since.
--- I already told you: NO CALIPHATE!
May 17, 2006
Bombing Kills 7 in Southern Russia
AP
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - A suspected suicide bomber killed seven people, including a high-level police official, in a restive southern region of Russia on Wednesday, authorities said.
Ingushetia's Deputy Interior Minister Dzhabrail Kostoyev, two of his bodyguards and four civilians were killed when a sedan packed with explosives blocked a road on the outskirts of the region's main city of Nazran and blew up, police said.
Kostoyev, a target of attacks in the past, had been traveling in an armored car to work in Nazran, Interior Ministry spokesman Roman Shchekotin said.
He said preliminary information indicated it was a suicide attack...
--- Do Muslims ever use any other type of attack?
The region is troubled by violence in some cases linked to the persistent conflict in neighboring Chechnya, where two wars have been fought in the past 12 years between federal forces and separatist rebels who increasingly have espoused extremist Islamic ideology.
--- Separatist rebels? What other euphemisms can the AP invent for Islamic cockroaches who want to restore the caliphate?
Gunman shouting 'Allah is great' shoots five at Turkish Council of State
AFP
ANKARA - Five judges were wounded, two seriously, when a gunman shouting "Allah is great" opened fire during a session here of the Council of State, Turkey's highest administrative court, Ankara governor Kemal Onal said.
--- Even the Turks have to fight off these Islamic psychos. But then the Turks killed millions of innocent Armenians, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for them.
Earlier media reports Wednesday said one judge had died in the attack by a man TV channels identified as lawyer Aslan Alpaslan, who was immediately arrested in possession of a handgun.
Alpaslan broke into the room where the 2nd Chamber of the Council was in session on the eighth floor of the building and unloaded two clips from his automatic pistol, shouting "Allahu Akbar" -- God is Great -- the NTV and CNN-Turk news channels reported.
One of the badly injured judges, 2nd Chamber president Mustafa Birden, was known for his rulings confirming a ban on women's Islamic headscarves in the public insititutions and universities of Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country with a strictly secular political system.
--- You have to shoot those infidels man. Allah sanctions it. But go ahead and shoot Turks instead of us.
UPDATE: Reuters story below tells us more about the religion of peace.
Gunman kills Turkish judge, injures 4 in court attack
Reuters
...Islamic militants, Kurdish separatists and far-leftists have all carried out attacks in Turkey, which began European Union accession talks last October, in recent years.
Suicide bombings blamed on al Qaeda killed more than 60 people in Istanbul in 2003...
The gunman had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "may God's wrath be upon you" as he carried out the attack, private news channel NTV reported witnesses as saying.
--- Geez, I'm rooting for Turkey. This is so weird.
"The attacker entered the chamber during a meeting and opened fire on each of the members, saying 'we are soldiers of Allah," the court's deputy chairwoman Tansel Colasan said...
--- Soldiers of Allah and Communists unite! Islamic militants and far-leftists are fighting together. Just like in the West!
Last week unknown assailants, shouting "God is greatest," lobbed a percussion bomb at the office of Turkey's most staunchly secular newspaper, the third attack in a few days.
May 15, 2006
Saddam Refuses to Enter Plea at His Trial
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A defiant Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea Monday, insisting he was still Iraq's president as the judge formally charged him with crimes against humanity, including murder and torture of women and children...
"Your honor, you gave a long report. That report can't be summed up by saying guilty or not," Saddam said. "Your honor is now before Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq. ... I am the president of Iraq by the will of the Iraqis, and I remain president of Iraq up to this moment."
--- I think he actually does believe what he's saying. Can't wait for that noose to break his neck.
"I do not recognize the collaborators that they brought to appoint a court and put forward a law with retroactive effect against the head of state," he said.
[Chief Judge] Abdel-Rahman entered a plea of not guilty for Saddam.
--- Reality won't budge dude.
I am the president! I am a rock, I am an island! I am the walrus!
High schools to teach British culture, traditions for Muslims
AFP
LONDON - British culture and traditions could be compulsory subjects in secondary schools to help better integrate the nation's 1.59 million Muslims into society, the government announced.
In a speech at a south London university, Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said a better understanding of British values was crucial following the July 7 bombings in London last year which killed 56 people.
--- I am dumbfounded. How dare they force Muslims to assimilate!
Hooray, Great Britain asserts itself. Jolly good.
[They] will consider the idea of providing compulsory lessons to 11- to 16-year-olds about core values about issues such as free speech, democracy, the contributions of different communities to the country and Britain's importance to world culture.
Rammell has already commissioned a report into the quality of teaching on Islam in British universities. Subjects to be tackled include ensuring that teaching is not restricted to narrow interpretations of beliefs and the nature of spiritual advice to young students on campuses.
--- I'm so proud of them. They lost 56 people, and they'd like to revamp their education system. We lost 3000 people, and we don't dare even talk about such things.
Hey, but we can always compare ourselves to France, and be thankful.
Boris Johnson, higher education spokesman for the main opposition Conservative Party whose own family roots are in Turkey, welcomed Rammell's remarks.
"There is nothing exclusive or divisive in pointing out the fantastic achievements of the British people," he said.
"For 30 years the British education establishment has kow-towed to the doctrines of multi-culturalism and they have deprecated all the institutions and symbols that unite the country."
"It is extremely pleasing that Labour ministers are at last recognising the error of this strategy."
--- *Pinch* Am I hallucinating?? *pinch* I don't think so. He actually said this in public?
May 12, 2006
Poll: Most Americans Support NSA's Efforts
Washington Post
A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it...
--- They still don't get it man!! BushCheneyInc is fooling the people again!! Dictators!!
Bwahhahahahaahaha!!! Bwwwwwwwaahahahaha!!!!!
Half--51 percent--approved of the way President Bush was handling privacy matters.
--- Barbra Streisand!! We need you now! Help us overthrow the dictators! They're establishing a neoconocracy and using the war on terror as a pretext for global domination! But nobody listens to us enlightened people who can see through the lies! No, my throat doesn't hurt yet! But it probably will soon, but I don't care! The louder we yell, the more power to the people! I think!
May 11, 2006
Privacy 'fiercely protected' as US scours phone records: Bush
AFP
WASHINGTON - The US government has monitored millions of US phone records in a massive anti-terrorism effort, news reports said, as President George W. Bush insisted that Americans' privacy is "fiercely protected" under his administration.
--- The media is trying again? It's nauseatingly boring, nobody cares, nobody is in a furor except the usual morons.
The president made his statement following a report in the USA Today newspaper that the National Security Agency, a US military department, has tracked the domestic phone calls of tens of millions of Americans.
Without confirming or denying the existence of the program, Bush asserted that US intelligence is not "mining or trolling" through the lives of Americans, but rather, attempting "to intercept the communications of people with known links to Al-Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."
--- But as usual, and this is the really annoying part, the president won't hit back. Apologetic, measured, timid response. His administration is totally inept with the media. Not one word about the leak, timed to hit General Hayden. They don't send anyone out to really explain what this is all about. How do you fight a war without any real PR plan, except going around timidly apologizing for everything? Christ, I'll do it for them.
What the President should have said, since no one in the administration has any balls to write this for him:
We are fighting an enemy that used the American telephone system to plan and coordinate the attack on 9/11. The NSA program to collect and monitor info, etc. etc. has severely disrupted the possibility of another terrorist attack. Once again someone has leaked vital security information to attack this administration and disrupt General Hayden's nomination process, and to undermine our war effort for political gain. I refuse to be intimidated...etc. etc. We are not trolling, we are not listening to ordinary Americans on the telephone. We are specifically researching call patterns in order to target possible terrorist activity. The American people understand that we are doing this to prevent another 9/11. If some members of the media and certain critics on both sides of the aisle want to undermine the safety of the nation for political gain, then continue this nonsense; the American people are not fooled by it. Investigate the program, that's fine; the program is completely legal. But don't waste my time, as commander-in-chief I am very busy fighting a very vicious enemy.
Something like that. Then maybe his approval rating would rise above historic lows. Idiot.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Calls Israel a 'Tyrannical Regime'
AP
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Iran's president on Thursday intensified his attacks against Israel, calling it a "a tyrannical regime that will one day will be destroyed," but also said he was ready to negotiate with the United States and its allies over his country's nuclear program.
--- Why haven't we blown this guy up yet? They sponsor terror around the world, they threaten to annihilate a whole country, they're playing with uranium. I make fun of Ahmadinejad only to diffuse the extreme seriousness of the issue. Since 1979 they've been pushing us around. I don't get it. He sends anti-American propaganda in a "letter" and has the media enthralled by it... once again our government doesn't counter the propaganda. They're worried about what the New York Times would say.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously said Israel should be wiped off the map, told a cheering crowd of students in the Indonesian capital that it is every country's right — not just the United States — to use new technology to meet energy needs.
--- Can't you hear the outcry from "moderate" Indonesians about this nut? No? Of course not. They're cheering him.
He said his country was willing to negotiate, but that the United States first must drop its "bad attitude."
--- Guffaw! Bad attitude. Ok, no ground war, just drop one nuke at a time until they surrender. I know it'll never happen, not even after they destroy Israel. I have such a bad attitude.
May 9, 2006
British-based radical Muslim cleric fights extradition to Jordan
AFP
LONDON - Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden's "right-hand man in Europe," has no grounds to stay in Britain and should be deported to his native Jordan, a court heard...
Britain claims the 44-year-old -- born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Othman -- is a danger to national security and his continuing presence is "not conducive to the public good".
But he claims that to return him to the Middle East kingdom, where he has been convicted in his absence of terrorist-related offences, would breach his human rights because he could be ill-treated or tortured.
Please don't hurt me!!
--- Awwww God, these pussies piss me off. You want to be a martyr? Then be one! Martyrs get tortured and killed for their beliefs. They don't whine that they might be "ill-treated." Goddamn cowards. These guys want jihad but they're worried about breaking a nail. They send out others to die, but they're not willing to die themselves because they're fricking thugs. Self-righteous murdering cowards pretending to be "martyrs."
Iran President Says Democracy Has Failed
AP
NEW YORK - Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn't resolve questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program...
--- Uhhhhh. This guy's nuts. And here is the full text of his letter (not exactly).
Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
--- This guy's been listening to NPR!
May 8, 2006
Bush Turns to Gen. Hayden to Lead CIA
AP
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday chose Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to lead the embattled CIA, re-igniting a debate over the domestic surveillance program that the one-time head of the National Security Agency once ran...
--- If the first reaction by the media is paranoia about the NSA, then he must be good.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she has found Hayden to be "straightforward and willing to share his candid professional judgments — even when they differed" from those of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld...
--- First pot shot at Rummy.
"Mike has both the breadth and depth of qualifications that are required for the position," [National Intelligence Director John] Negroponte said. He called Hayden "a very, very independent-minded person, blunt spoken, who I don't think will have any difficulty whatsoever staking out positions that are independent and responsive to the needs of our civilian intelligence community."...
--- Very very very very very very independent-minded. Second indirect pot shot at Rummy.
"He'll be reporting to the president of the United States, not Don Rumsfeld," the secretary of defense, Hadley said, adding that other military officers have led the CIA, Hadley said. "So the precedents are clear."...
--- Three...
White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Hayden would be the fifth CIA chief in uniform. "He has been viewed as a non-comformist and an independent thinker," Bartlett said.
--- Four. Ok, we get it. I really don't care about the politics of it. Tenet and Goss were idiots, so try this guy. What the hell.
May 5, 2006
New Home Is 'Alcatraz of the Rockies'
Washington Post
It's not the death penalty, but convicted al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui will soon face a punishment that some consider even worse: up to 23 hours a day in a soundproof, concrete cell, cut off from contact with anyone other than his guards and, perhaps, the lawyers who helped save him from execution.
Moussaoui is expected to be transferred within days to the Administrative Maximum United States Penitentiary, or Admax, in Florence, Colo., the federal government's most secure prison, located in the high desert 90 miles south of Denver...
--- The conservatives who were seriously lamenting the verdict yesterday (Dennis "Sad, sad day" Prager, Rush, Peggy Noonan...) should consider that he ain't going to the typical hotel-style prison... This is a pretty tough place, fortunately.
In the most tightly monitored part of the facility, known as the "control unit," inmates are kept in segregation at all times -- living, sleeping and eating in individual cells poured from concrete that measure approximately 7 feet by 11 feet. They are designed to ensure that inmates cannot speak to or make eye contact with each other, according to defense lawyers, human rights advocates and others who have had access to the facility. Some prisoners are monitored 24 hours a day by surveillance cameras in their cells.
--- Let him stare at the ceiling for the next 40 some odd years. I still think someone can bribe his way in and kill him. The verdict wasn't the end of the world.
Cheney Says Iran Should Renounce Nukes
AP
ASTANA, Kazakhstan - Vice President Dick Cheney, visiting Kazakhstan Friday, said that Iran should follow the example the Central Asian set several years ago in renouncing nuclear weapons.
--- Uh oh, The Evil One is pursuing world domination again!! He's going after more OOIIILLLL!!!
At a news conference, Cheney also shrugged off Russian criticism of a speech he delivered Thursday that accused President Vladimir Putin of backsliding on democracy and using energy resources as political leverage against European countries...
--- "Don't touch my oil, bitch!" The Evil One said to Putin.
Cheney arrived for talks seeking to maximize access to the vast oil and gas reserves in the central Asian nation with a troubled human-rights record.
--- See!! Halliburton!! Dictator!! Neocon warlord!!!!
If I keep this up, maybe I can get a gig at NPR!! Well, gotta go get some gas for my SUV.
May 4, 2006
Moussaoui Gets Last Chance to Speak Before Going to Jail
Fox News
"God curse America, God save Usama bin Laden. You will never get him," Moussaoui said after U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema formally sentenced the terrorist to life in prison.
"I don't think the defendant has accepted responsibility," Brinkema said.
--- Now I'm convinced the judge is as insane as Moussaoui. What did he do to deserve another chance to taunt us? No, maybe he didn't accept responsibility, you fricking robed tyrannical moron.
Moussaoui Sentenced to Life in Prison
--- My gut reaction was "what!!!??" Then upon reflection, I had mixed feelings. It is possible that he is more "insane" than the typical insane terrorist. He also probably inflated his role in Al-Qaeda. It would sort of be like executing the mailroom guy at Enron, so to speak... if you get my gist. The other defense tactics were bull. He had a tough childhood, he was taunted, racism blah blah. It seems that you have to be white to earn the death penalty now. The prosecution tried to over-emotionalize too. We know how awful it was, but both sides were trying to sway the jury with emotion. Nevertheless, he'll be put in a cage for the rest of his life, and there's always a chance that he'll get cornered and raped or possibly killed in prison. No one doubted his guilt, and that's a good thing. Lack of nerve, probably. I don't think this is a travesty, but it highlights the problem of our legal system that we know is broken. It comes down to a stupid judge and lawyers, and he shouldn't have been handled through the courts anyway.
May 3, 2006
Yemen court sentences key al Qaeda suspect to jail
Reuters
SANAA - Yemen's state security court sentenced a senior al Qaeda suspect to 37 months in prison on Wednesday for funding militants in the Arab state.
Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, identified as al Qaeda's number two in Yemen, was charged with forming an armed gang, financing militants and involvement in the deaths of 18 Yemeni soldiers...
--- 37 months? Well, we'll take it.
Ahdal, who has been in custody for almost three years, was an aide of al Qaeda's leader in Yemen, Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, who was killed by a missile fired by an unmanned CIA drone in Yemen in 2002.
Both men were key suspects in the 2000 bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in Aden port.
--- We're taking 'em down, one by one. Despite Amnesty International.
May 2, 2006
Iran threatens Israel, makes new enrichment claim
Reuters
TEHRAN - Iran threatened on Tuesday to attack Israel in response to any "evil" act by the United States and said it had enriched uranium to a level close to the maximum compatible with civilian use in power stations.
--- Oh, you wanna play dat game huh? Keep talking dudes.
[Iran] has used a test cascade of 164 centrifuges to enrich uranium so far and is building two similar cascades. It says it will start installing 3,000 centrifuges later this year -- enough to yield material for one bomb within a year.
--- Yeah but America is "evil" not Iran. Iran so pristine and innocent, sticking it to da neocon warlords!
Oh my Allah, I'm way sexier than Dick Cheney
Pakistan Detains al-Qaida Fugitive Nasar
AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - A top al-Qaida leader whose links stretch from Afghan terror training camps to extremist networks operating throughout Europe has been detained in neighboring Pakistan and possibly handed over to American authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
--- Yeah baby!
Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a Syrian who also holds Spanish citizenship, was captured in a November 2005 sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta that left one person dead, said the American official, who declined to be identified further because the matter is sensitive.
Pakistani and American officials have long been tightlipped on the status of Nasar, who has had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head. He has been described by the U.S. Justice Department as a former trainer at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals...
--- Wow, he's a big one.
Media reports have linked Nasar... to the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people, and to the July 7, 2005 attacks in London that left 56 dead, including the four bombers.
Dey torture me!!
May 1, 2006
Suspected Islamic Militants Kill 22 Hindus in Kashmir
AP
JAMMU, India — Suspected Islamic militants raided a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed 22 Hindus, lining them outside their homes and shooting them execution-style, police said Monday.
Following the attack Sunday in Thava — a village about 100 miles northeast of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state — survivors rushed to alert a nearby army camp, but the assailants fled before security forces arrived, said Sheesh Pal Vaid, a police inspector-general.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Vaid called the killings "a terrorist attack" — a clear indication that authorities are blaming Islamic militants for the attack.
--- Just shot them down for being infidels. Allah is proud.
April 28, 2006
5 Plead Not Guilty in Failed Bombings
AP
LONDON - Five men pleaded not guilty Friday to murder conspiracy and other charges in the failed attempt to bomb London's transit system on July 21...
Ethiopian-born [Hussein] Osman has said through his lawyer that the bombing attempt was meant to scare people, not kill them.
--- "I am only wanting to scare infidels with harmless bombs, Allah willing. I am not wanting to kill anybody. Islam is peace, Allah be praised. They tortured me!!!"
Iran 'Won't Give a Damn' About Resolution
AP
VIENNA, Austria - Iran "won't give a damn" about any U.N. resolutions concerning its nuclear program, its president said Friday, hours before an expected finding that Tehran has failed to meet a Security Council deadline to suspend uranium enrichment.
--- I wish Kofi Annan would be replaced by a gang-banger. I can picture U.N. President Snoop Dogg riding in a limousine with bumper stickers all over it saying "FEAR THIS." Then Tehran might be intimidated by U.N. resolutions.
The anticipated finding by U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei will set the stage for a confrontation at the Security Council.
--- I'm sure that will be awfully frightening.
"Today, they want to force us to give up our way through threats and sanctions but those who resort to language of coercion should know that nuclear energy is a national demand and by the grace of God, today Iran is a nuclear country," state-run television quoted [President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] as saying.
--- I already saw a sign over a highway saying "No War with Iran." Not that I advocate war but the left-wing playbook will be exactly the same with Iran. I also saw some idiot in the center of my socialist dystopian town with a sign that said "Victory to the Iraqi Insurgency!" I mean it's surreal. Like I'm stuck in a hallucination man.
"Remember how it goes. It's number 1, Death to Israel. Number 2, Death to America."
"Hey! Yeah you! I can't hear you, come on! Death to America! Death to America!"
April 26, 2006
2 Bombers Strike Outside Base in Egypt
AP
CAIRO, Egypt - Two suicide bombers struck Wednesday outside the main base of the multinational peacekeeping force near the Gaza border in Sinai, killing themselves but causing no other casualties in an attack two days after a deadly triple bombing in a beach resort.
--- Haaaaaahaahahaaha!! They only killed themselves! Good for them!
April 25, 2006
10 Arrested in Egyptian Resort Bombings
AP
DAHAB, Egypt — Police arrested 10 people Tuesday and divers retrieved body parts from the sea after a triple bomb attack that ripped apart a Sinai beach resort at the height of Egypt's tourist season, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 80, many of them foreigners...
The blasts were so powerful that police divers worked Tuesday morning to retrieve body parts from the shallow waters of the sea, as workers swept shards of glass from the streets. At one spot near the beach, two black sandals lay in a pool of blood on a wooden footbridge.
--- But in more important news today, a captive at Guantanamo broke a nail and claimed it was authorized by the Greatest Terrorist in the World, George W. Bush.
Nearby, outside the supermarket where one blast occurred, a tiny shoe covered in blood lay on top of a baby stroller. Witnesses said the stroller belonged to foreign twin infants who they said looked European...
--- Twin infants. TWIN INFANTS!!
The attacks — the third terror strike at a Sinai resort in less than two years — came just one day after Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden had urged Muslims to support Al Qaeda in what he called a war against Islam...
--- They are truly deranged.
The Dahab attack — clearly targeted at both Coptic Christian Egyptians celebrating a religious holiday and Muslim Egyptians on national holiday, along with Israelis and foreign tourists — seemed consistent with the aims of hardline Al Qaeda sympathizers, often called Salafists...
--- What did the Copts ever do to you bastards? You stole their country and have oppressed them ever since.
Stephen Hadley, U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser, speaking on CBS' "Early Show," said it was not yet clear who was behind the attack but noted most victims were Muslims and said that negated any idea there was a war between the West and Islam...
--- We say that to isolate Al-Qaeda, yeah, but they're definitely at war with the West, and "fake" Muslims, and Jews and Hindus and Copts and... can't these terrorist pigs learn to lighten up a little? Go get yourselves a few wives, a few sheep, live it up and leave us alone.
April 24, 2006
German brothel made to remove S.Arabia, Iran flags
Reuters
BERLIN - A brothel in Cologne was forced to black out the flags of Saudi Arabia and Iran from a huge World Cup soccer-themed advertising banner after angry Muslims complained and threatened violence...
"They didn't want these two flags to be associated with this go-go girl on the banner as it's a brothel and it offended their religious feelings," said a spokeswoman for the Cologne police.
"The owner removed the flags even though he wasn't legally obliged to as no crime had been committed."
--- It's amazingly cowardly and hypocritical, don't you think? I mean if some Christians complained, they would be laughed at and lectured about free speech and all that, but when Muslims come knocking everybody runs like hell out of fear. The Germans are as bad as the French.
Bin Laden Says U.S. Waging War on Islam
AP
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden issued new threats in an audiotape broadcast on Arab television Sunday and accused the United States and Europe of supporting a "Zionist" war on Islam by cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
He also urged followers to go to Sudan, his former base, to fight a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force...
--- Dear Crusaders and Zionists-
Anybody listening to me? I'm still here. See I am not dead. Actually, I am kind of lonely hiding in caves. It takes its toll you know. I miss my camels. If you infidels would just leave me alone, I would be able to be reunited with them. I miss McDonald's too. You don't know how hard it is to get food out here. I'm feeling kind of depressed. I think I need more Paxil. Sometimes, I wish you crusaders would find me. Then I can shoot myself and go to Paradise... Damn, I'm so horny.
-Osama
sheikbladen1@alqaeda.net
April 13, 2006
Al-Zawahri Urges Support for Insurgents
AP
Al-Qaida's Deputy Pig
--- I'm sick of this babbling pig. Would someone please find him and kill him immediately? Yes, wanted dead, not alive, otherwise Ramsey Clark or some other bloodsucker-at-law will come to his rescue.
"The Islamic nation must support the heroic mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Iraq, who are fighting on the very front line for the dignity of Islam," al-Zawahri said.
--- No, it's about ooooiiiilll, dude. You been brainwashed by the neocons, man.
"And to my brother mujahedeen in Iraq, I say, Stay firm. Stay together. Your enemy has begun to falter, so don't stop pursuing him until he flees defeated," he said.
--- Piss on your fricking mujahedeen.
On the tape, he denounced Bush as the "caesar of Washington" and accused him of lying about progress in the war on terror.
"Bush, son of Bush, eliminating Israel is the duty of every believer," al-Zawahri said.
--- Go shove a sharp object into your rear orifice. Has this guy been going to anti-war rallies? He sounds like Noam Chomsky.
We will destroy you.
April 12, 2006
Indonesia Protesters Attack Playboy Building
AP
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A group of Muslims protesting Playboy's decision to launch an Indonesian edition of the magazine clashed with police Wednesday and stoned the company's editorial offices, witnesses said.
--- I was gonna pass on this one, but since they got violent I figured, what the hell, it's so hard to find stories of violence among Muslims.
I'm not even gonna mention the fact that there is no nudity in these magazines, but a woman showing half of her face is considered nudity with them.
No one was injured in the protest involving around 150 members of the Islamic Defenders' Front, a small group with a history of attacking bars and nightclubs, as well as Western embassies.
--- How can so many of these militant Muslims be enraged all around the world about so many things? Where do they get the energy? Wow. Islam itself, however, now don't forget, is a peaceful religion. Thought I'd mention that before the State Department says it for the 8000th time.
April 11, 2006
Philippine troops kill leading Abu Sayyaf member
Reuters
MANILA - Philippine soldiers killed a leader of Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf wanted for a series of fatal bombings, including an attack which killed a U.S. soldier in 2002, the army said on Tuesday.
Soldiers killed Amilhamja Ajijul and a relative, also an Abu Sayyaf member, in a pre-dawn raid on a coastal village in the southern city of Zamboanga, Colonel Edgardo Gidaya told reporters...
The Abu Sayyaf has links to the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah and al Qaeda and is blamed for the Philippines' worst terror attack -- the bombing of a ferry near Manila in February 2004 -- that killed more than 100.
The group, which has a membership of around 400 and is on Washington's blacklist of terror organizations, has also kidnapped and beheaded foreign and Filipino tourists and church workers.
--- The War... on... Islamic Expansionism... goes on...
Six Afghan children killed in rocket strike
Reuters
ASADABAD, Afghanistan - A rocket hit an open-air Afghan school in the yard of a mosque on Tuesday, killing six children and wounding about 30...
"Two rockets were fired ... one hit the compound of a primary school where children including girls were busy studying," said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Hassan Farahi...
Text books and pieces of flesh littered the ground as distraught parents arrived hunting for their children, a Reuters reporter said.
--- Coming to an appeasing European country near you... Islamic militants blowing up children to please Allah. Pieces of flesh littering the ground of what used to be Western Civilization. And the Left saw, and blamed Bush.
Bali Bomber's Family Says He Wants to Die
AP
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Relatives of a militant on death row for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings have told prosecutors they will not seek clemency on his behalf, clearing the way for the state to execute him, an attorney general's spokesman said Tuesday.
Imam Samudra has already says he wants to die, believing he would become a martyr...
Samudra, who was convicted for playing a key operational and planning role in the blasts, has frequently gloated over them and had a book published in which he defends them as part of jihad or holy war against the West.
--- Another death worshipper bites the dust.
April 10, 2006
Bush critics alarmed over reports of possible strike on Iran
AFP
WASHINGTON - Critics of the George W. Bush administration expressed alarm about explosive new reports that the president is mulling military options to knock out Iran's nuclear program...
--- Here's some more brilliant journalism. Bush critics are alarmed about Bush. Big news. We're mulling military options. What's so surprising? We have to consider it. Why not just say what you mean: "The world's greatest terrorist, Bushitler, is going after more oil!!!"
Retired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of US Central Command, told US television Sunday that he had no detailed knowledge of the alleged military plans, but he suggested a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear program would be extremely risky...
--- No s**t General.
The New Yorker magazine reported in its April 17 issue that the administration is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran... The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said that Bush and others in the White House have come to view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential "Adolf Hitler"...
--- Bush, of course, is far more dangerous, being the world's greatest terrorist. Notice the projection of Hitler onto Ahmadinejad, when Bush knows that he's the real Hitler. See, I can be a cool lefty too by saying this stuff!
Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition" show that a "messianic" president feels driven to try to contain Iran and that the White House is determined to keep open a nuclear option against strong objections from some top Pentagon officials.
--- Messianic! Why not just call him a dumb hick Christian! Why you beating around the bush, Seymour Dickhead.
"He (Bush) thinks, as I wrote, that he's the only one now who will have the courage to do it," said Hersh, the reporter who also broke the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal...
--- Yes, a fine objective journalist you are, Mr. Abu Ghraib. Iran wants to get nuclear weapons and blow up Israel, but you think Bush is the greatest threat to humanity. I'm glad we have people like Seymour Dickhead to get to the truth.
Meanwhile, according to a report Sunday in the Washington Post, Bush is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear program...
--- Well, thank you Washington Post. Someone's bright enough to figure out that we are trying to SCARE Iran. It's called head games, Seymour. Self-hating dweebs like you don't understand that you have to rattle the saber to scare your opponents. The dickhead thinks that Bush is an insane tyrant trying to push all the nuke buttons, but is being held back by a bunch of wise, "moderate" generals who put him in a strait jacket. This whole Dr. Strangelove mentality.
Of course, there is no byline to the AFP story. I pick on Seymour, but some dolt at the AFP writes this hit job and then just signs it "AFP, self-appointed saviors of the world from BushCheney Inc."
April 6, 2006
Danish Products Back in Saudi Stores
AP
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Cheese and butter from the Danish company Arla were back on supermarket shelves Thursday in Saudi Arabia after an Islamic group ended a boycott of the dairy producer sparked by Denmark's publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.
Saudi stores began restocking Arla products after the International Committee for the Support of the Final Prophet gave the company the green light and praised the measures it had taken to distance itself from the Prophet Muhammad caricatures that provoked mass demonstrations and riots across the Muslim world in January and February.
Arla had taken out newspaper advertisements condemning the publication of the cartoons and pledged to fund projects helping disabled children and cancer victims in the Middle East.
--- You goddamn pussies! Talk about dhimmitude. The company actually offers to give to charity to appease their guilt by association? Why not just cut off your own heads and give them to the "International Committee for the Support of the Final Prophet."
In a full-page ad in Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday, Arla... pledged to sponsor "an international conference about the Prophet Muhammad for better understanding between world religions and cultures."
--- Is Arla really that pathetic? The story also says they've lost $65 million since the boycott began. I guess as a business decision, it probably makes sense. But the groveling pretense... they had nothing to do with the fricking cartoons! But we're sorry anyway! Please buy our cheese!!
Detainee Says He Was Tortured by Moroccans
AP
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Binyam Muhammad, who has been accused of plotting al-Qaida attacks in the United States, was tortured with a scalpel after American authorities handed him over to Moroccan interrogators, according to an account provided by his lawyer.
Muhammad made his first appearance in the U.S. military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay on Thursday, charged with conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders to attack civilians and other crimes...
He criticized U.S. authorities for getting his name wrong, claimed he was not the person they sought and bitterly suggested the court refer to him as Count Dracula...
--- Wha... Say what? Count Dracula? Is he playing insane? Aren't all terrorists basically insane?
His torturers beat him and sliced Muhammad's penis with a scalpel, according to the detainee's account.
"They cut all over my private parts. One of them said it would be better just to cut it off, as I would only breed terrorists," [his lawyer said].
--- I wonder if he has scars. If true it's not good, but... he thinks he's Count Dracula. He isn't very credible.
Muhammad said that while he was handcuffed, his jailers put headphones on him.
"They played hip-hop and rock music, very loud," Muhammad said. "I remember they played Meatloaf and Aerosmith over and over. I hated that. ... When I became a Muslim, I had tried to get away from this. I'd canceled all the music out of my head and now they were forcing it back again."
--- That's not fricking torture moron. What, loud music bad, killing infidels good?
Muhammad said women came to the house, naked or partially clothed, and were shown to him — an affront to devout Muslims.
--- Son of a bitch. You call that torture too? A devout Muslim, yeah, but... naked women! For free! Oh, the agony.
April 5, 2006
Indian police arrest Islamic cleric for blasts
Reuters
LUCKNOW, India - Indian police have arrested six Islamic militants, including a cleric who helped plan bomb blasts in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi last month which left 18 people dead and dozens wounded.
Police said on Wednesday the cleric, Waliullah, was an Indian who acted as the local commander of a Bangladeshi Islamic militant group, Harkatul Jihad-al Islami, and was a conduit for three Bangladeshis who carried out the Varanasi blasts...
-- I thought Islamic terrorists were just mad at the West because of the crusades, etc. etc. Well, Hans Brix? Should they appease them? India knows what I'm saying. Islamic militants just want to kill all infidels anywhere; it's their religious duty.
Waliullah was also accused of sending the five other arrested men -- four of whom were from Uttar Pradesh and one from the eastern state of West Bengal -- to Pakistan through Bangladesh to attend a militant training camp conducted by Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani spy agency.
--- A militant training camp conducted by the Pakistani spy agency? Who knows.
CBS Cameraman Is Acquitted by Iraqi Court
AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi cameraman working for CBS News was acquitted Wednesday of insurgent activity, a year after being wounded and detained by the U.S. military after a car bombing....
--- Dan Rather participated in insurgent activity, didn't he? Oh, ok, that's not really funny.
Scott Horton, one of his American lawyers, said the U.S. military claimed [Abdul Ameer Younis] Hussein had prior knowledge of the car bombing and celebrated with other Iraqis in the aftermath, chanting "God is Great!"
But prosecutors acknowledged there was not enough evidence and moved to drop the case....
--- I guess he's lucky no one taped him. Yeah, I know, innocent until proven guilty.
"All the time they were cursing me, and calling me a terrorist," [Hussein] said. "I kept saying, 'I'm not a terrorist. I'm a correspondent.'"
--- Sorry, but that's funny! I'm tempted to do an Andrew Dice Clay impression... Terrorist, correspondent, what's the bleeping difference!
April 3, 2006
Blix: Iran Years Away From Nuclear Bomb
AP
OSLO, Norway - Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefully negotiate a settlement.
--- Oh no! Hans Brix is back! Now I can talk rike Kim Jong Il in Team America!
Five years?
Blix, attending an energy conference in western Norway, said he doubted the U.S. would resort to invading Iran.
"But there is a chance that the U.S. will use bombs or missiles against several sites in Iran," he was quoted by Norwegian news agency NTB as saying. "Then, the reactions would be strong, and would contribute to increased terrorism."
--- You stupid Hans Brix! Why should I care about Hans Brix. He's just some dipromat. Besides, Iran has Arec Bardwin!
If we bomb them, we'rr get more terrorism. You're unberievabre Hans Brix. They arready sponsor terrorism arr over the prace. Stupid European dipromat. I'm grad you weren't around during Hitrer's reign.
Not that I advocate bombing Iran. Just don't advocate Hans Brix.
March 31, 2006
Afghan clerics say West meddled in convert case
Reuters
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan - Afghan clerics blamed meddling foreigners on Friday for the release of a Christian convert who they said should be executed for abandoning Islam...
--- Yeah, yeah.
[A] prayer leader in Mazar-i-Sharif, Qari Abdul Hakim, said Rahman's release was a blow to Islam and he should have been hanged in public...
--- Sure. This is when it gets good.
Clerics in the eastern town of Ghazni also criticized foreign interference with one saying the West had launched a new crusade.
"The West has began a crusade, an indirect one, by pressuring Afghanistan to release him," said cleric Sayed Ghulam Sakhi Asghari, who is a member of a government-appointed clerical council.
As he spoke worshippers chanted "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest). Some said: "Death to the apostate, death to the traitors."
--- Crusaders, crusaders, crusaders, infidels, Jews. Death to America. Death to Israel. Death to the apostate. Death to the traitors. Death to Denmark. Death to the cartoonists. Death to Bush. Death to Blair.
We fight or we die. Understand yet?
March 30, 2006
Reporter Freed in Iraq, 3 Months After Abduction
NY Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Jill Carroll, the American reporter kidnapped in Baghdad nearly three months ago, was freed Thursday, saying she had spent most of her time in a small room but had been well treated by her captors...
"I was treated very well; it's important people know that," Ms. Carroll said in an interview with an Iraqi, conducted in the Sunni party's offices and shown on television later in the day. "They never threatened me in any way."
--- Ok, first, I am happy for her release. I also recognize that she may be psychologically unsound these days, so her comments might be slightly... off. But "they never threatened me in any way?" They threatened to kill you dear. And the first chance she gets, she criticizes... America!!
Ms. Carroll, apparently knowing she would be released, denounced what she described as the "lies" told by the American government and predicted that the insurgents would defeat the Americans in Iraq. "I feel guilty. I also feel that it just shows that the mujahedeen are good people fighting an honorable fight, a good fight. While the Americans are here, the occupying forces, you know, treating the people in a very, very bad way. So I can't be happy totally for my freedom because there are people still suffering in prisons, in very difficult situations."
--- I have doubts that she's suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. This is what she believed right from the beginning. She went to cover the suffering of Iraqis under the brutal conquest of evil imperialist America. She was already sympathetic to her captors, before she was captured. It might run in the family; you might have caught her mother's quote, while begging for her daughter's life in January (AP Story: Kidnapped Journalist's Mother Pleads With Captors, January 19, 2006):
"I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world," Mary Beth Carroll said in a television interview.
Poor suffering Iraqis. Of course they weren't suffering until we got there. No, it looks like she's just another self-hating anti-American moron rooting for those good honorable mujahadeen who chop people's heads off. But that's justified because we're occupiers. So she's either sick in the head, or she's just a frickin' douchebag. There's nothing heroic about her.
March 29, 2006
U.S. Muslim Gets 30 Years for Plot to Assassinate President Bush
AP
An American Muslim was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for joining Al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush.
--- Yaaaaaaaaayyyy!
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum — a life sentence — for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Va...
--- Born and raised in the U.S. of A. You coulda been somebody.
The jury in the three-week trial saw a videotaped confession Abu Ali gave to the Saudis in which he said he joined Al Qaeda because he hated the United States for its support of Israel...
--- Creep.
In February, defense lawyers asked for a review of the conviction in light of the disclosure that the Bush administration had eavesdropped on suspected terrorists' conversations without search warrants. Abu Ali's lawyers said they suspected, but had no firm evidence, that Abu Ali had been a target of the surveillance program.
--- Poster boy for domestic wiretapping. An all-American scumbag. Nuttin' else to say, except I hope he enjoys prison sex.
March 28, 2006
Al-Qaeda Plotters Dismiss Moussaoui's Role
Washington Post
A day after Zacarias Moussaoui testified that he was supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001 and fly it into the White House, his defense attorneys read statements from four other alleged terrorists questioning Moussaoui's competence and saying he had nothing to do with the plot...
--- Ok, not surprising.
Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, who is known as Hambali and was the chief strategist for the South Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiya, which has ties to al-Qaeda, said he worked with Moussaoui in Malaysia and believed he was "very troubled, not right in the head."
--- Haaa!! Not right in the head!! Hambali, chief strategist for a South Asian terror group, is a fine example of sanity! I picture these murderous thugs saying to each other, "man, he's crazy." Good laugh for a Tuesday morning.
March 27, 2006
Afghan Court Dismisses Case vs. Alleged Christian Convert
AP
--- Alleged Christian convert? Think about that one.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A court on Sunday dismissed the case against an Afghan man facing possible execution for converting from Islam to Christianity, officials said, paving the way for his release...
--- Good! I'm happy for the man. The voices of reason have saved his life.
Muslim extremists, who have demanded death for Rahman as an apostate for rejecting Islam, warned the decision would touch off protests across this religiously conservative country. Some clerics previously vowed to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he was let go.
--- Not extremists, just ordinary average conservative Muslims following Sharia. The "just a handful of extremists" line is getting old. And don't these clerics have anything better to do than incite murder all the time?
March 24, 2006
Pakistani pamphlets link militants to Hindus, Jews
Reuters
TANK, Pakistan - Pakistan's military airdropped pamphlets this week over towns in restive tribal regions near the Afghan border urging tribesmen to shun "foreign terrorists," saying they were part of a Hindu and Jewish plot...
Titled "Warning," the pamphlets said the foreign militants were fighting against Pakistan in connivance with "Jews and Hindus," a term that would play on traditional prejudices among the region's Muslim conservatives.
--- It's not funny, but it's funny. To turn Muslims against each other, just say "Jews!"
March 23, 2006
Clerics Call for Christian Convert's Death Despite Western Outrage
AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity must be executed and if the government caves into Western pressure and frees him they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."...
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hardline regime was ousted in 2001...
--- A moderate Muslim speaks.
"Cut off his head!" he exclaimed, sitting in a courtyard outside Herati Mosque. "We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left."...
--- Can you sense the yearning to live a free and democratic life in his voice? He's a moderate.
But Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite places of worship in Kabul, said Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country.
"If he is allowed to live in the West then others will claim to be Christian so they can too," he said. "We must set an example. ... He must be hanged."
--- He just wants his break his neck, not cut his head off. At least there is a diversity of opinion.
Islamic Activism Sweeps Saudi Arabia
Washington Post
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - [A] grass-roots movement... has sprung up across the kingdom since January, when anger over cartoons of Muhammad sparked riots in Europe and several Muslim countries. The movement is made up of a diverse cross section of women, students, businessmen, lawyers and clerics, all campaigning under the banner of Nusrat al-Rasool, or Victory for the Prophet.
The activists' campaign includes a continuing economic boycott of Denmark, where the cartoons were first published, and a project to produce television ads about the prophet for broadcast in Europe. College students are attempting to collect 1 million signatures to present to the Danish Embassy, and lawyers are studying ways to make insulting Islam and its prophet illegal.
--- More of the same, but they're activists instead of terrorists. You still don't get it people. You may not be carrying guns, but the ads about the prophet for broadcast in Europe (Islamic proselytizing... you kill Christians for doing that in your country, you morons), making insults against Islam illegal; your aims are the same as al-Qaeda.
Sulaiman al-Buthi, a Riyadh-based spokesman for the International Committee for the Defense of the Final Prophet, says this religious but peaceful activism could put an end to violence and drive groups like al-Qaeda out of business...
--- Peaceful activism. You know, it's ok to be on fire for your religion, and I appreciate the fact that you're not blowing people up, but you still want to EXPAND. And you ain't expanding over my ass.
On the other hand, lawyer and writer Bassem Alem says he believes that the cartoons were only a trigger within the context of an already burgeoning region-wide Islamic resurgence. People "look around and they see Islamists winning in Egypt and Palestine and Morocco," he said, referring to elections in those places. "They feel empowered, and this is just one more manifestation of that."
--- Another manifestation of Islamism. That's kind of what I said.
Alem says that people took matters into their own hands because their governments were not doing enough to assuage their anger. He also contends these ad hoc committees will supplant Western-style civic institutions. "The methodologies for setting up civic institutions here failed because they were a Western model," he said. "These indigenous movements will take root because they are based on our beliefs and real needs."
--- Oh joy. They're still angry over fricking cartoons. Once again, the anger may be understandable, but the actions aren't. And you want to build non-Western-style civic institutions? That means no democracy. Insidious.
Musharraf to Militants: Leave or Die
AP
LAHORE, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Thursday ordered all foreign militants to leave Pakistan or be killed.
"All foreign militants should leave Pakistan, otherwise they would be crushed," Musharraf told a rally of some 80,000 people in the eastern city of Lahore.
--- Now that's how you deal with terrorists in your country.
March 21, 2006
Homeland Security to Target Chemical Plants
AP
WASHINGTON — The free ride is almost over for U.S. chemical plants that have failed to strengthen protection against terrorists or accidental leaks, says the nation's homeland security chief...
Homeland Security "wants and deserves authority to set federal standards for chemical security, and then enforce those standards," said Chris VandenHeuvel, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, which represents large chemical manufacturers. "Four and a half years after 9/11, they still don't have that."....
Legislation is pending in the Senate to authorize Homeland Security to shut down facilities that do not comply with minimum safety standards.
--- Like, about time. Wow.
March 20, 2006
Afghan Man Faces Death for Allegedly Converting to Christianity
AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday.
The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told the Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country's Islamic laws...
Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death.
"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam. ... The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty."
--- More proof that Islam is a peaceful religion. Isn't it obvious? I mean, he asked for it. He attacked Islam by renouncing it. How dare he? Eye for an eye, right? Renounce Islam, get disemboweled. Kill infidels, go to Paradise. That's Islamic justice. Peace and harmony. Stare it in the face and stop rationalizing. It's coming to a country near you. Like France.
Wait, did you notice that? His family went to the police. Frickin' barbaric.
March 17, 2006
Some in France See Moussaoui As Scapegoat
AP
PARIS - In Zacarias Moussaoui's native France, his trial is less about terrorism than about what Europeans consider the perplexing American attachment to the death penalty....
Most French coverage of the trial has focused on what sentence the judge will hand Moussaoui, the French-born son of Moroccan immigrants: life in prison or execution.
France, which abolished capital punishment in 1981, has demanded that none of the information it provided for the U.S. case against Moussaoui be used to seek the death penalty.
--- France is more concerned about the death penalty than about the slow takeover of their country. See, this is why they're headed toward becoming the Islamic Republic of France. You can argue either way about the death penalty, but that's not the issue. How clueless, pathetic, goddamn suicidal can you be?
Iran Top Cop Says U.S. Behind Border Shootout That Killed 21
AP
TEHRAN, Iran — Gunmen posing as security forces killed 21 people on a highway in southeastern Iran near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, the national chief of police said Friday.
Iranian police called the assailants "rebels." But there are no well-known political opposition groups operating in southeastern Iran, a region known for gangs of drug traffickers who have frequently clashed with security forces and occasionally kidnapped people.
National police chief Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam accused U.S. and British intelligence of being behind the attack on Thursday night, the official Iranian news agency reported...
Moghaddam said police had information indicating U.S. and British intelligence agents had met representatives of the "rebels," but he gave no details.
--- Tick tock... Time's running out for the Iranian regime. It's "irreversible."
March 16, 2006
Bush Report Reiterates Strike-First Policy
AP
WASHINGTON — Undaunted by the difficult war in Iraq, President Bush reaffirmed his strike-first policy against terrorists and enemy nations on Thursday and said Iran may pose the biggest challenge for America.
In a 49-page national security report, the president said diplomacy is the U.S. preference in halting the spread of nuclear and other heinous weapons...
Titled "National Security Strategy," the report summarizes Bush's plan for protecting America and directing U.S. relations with other nations. It is an updated version of a report Bush issued in 2002.
In the earlier report a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush underscored his administration's adoption of a pre-emptive policy, marking the end of a deterrent military strategy that dominated the Cold War.
The latest report makes it clear Bush hasn't changed his mind, even though no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
--- I guess the translation of this is approximately "you screwed up in Iraq, but you're still sticking with the strike-first policy," which is backwards. We thought there were WMD, so we attacked. Not finding them doesn't nullify the policy. But of course, we made that WMD stuff up. If you believe that, that still doesn't nullify the policy. The policy is a course of action based on intelligence. Criticize the intelligence, not the strike first policy. What, should we have asked Saddam to show us the weapons please, before we attack, just to make sure that our policy is correct? We need proof please before we attack. Oh, you don't have any WMD? Ok, we won't attack. More great journalism from the AP. Did we mention that no WMD were found in Iraq?
March 14, 2006
Quake aid gives radical Islam a stage
Christian Science Monitor
MUZAFFARABAD, PAKISTAN - The long-bearded doctor won't reveal his name or where he's from, but he's certain his camp has the best medical facilities in town.
His organization, Jamat-ud-Dawa (The Society of the Call), was once suspected of ties to terrorist groups on the Indian side of Kashmir, but today it's a lauded front-runner in the dispensation of earthquake relief aid...
--- Hmmmmmm.
Radical Islamist groups like his have become an indispensable part of the relief effort following the devastating Oct. 8, 2005, earthquake...
--- Why am I suspicious? Am I a paranoid, delusional Western infidel for not believing that radical Islamist groups can change their ways?
There is hope that groups like Jamat-ud-Dawa, having seen the benefits of relief work, are trading the mantle of militancy for social work.
--- Say what? I once wanted to kill infidels, now I help the poor. I traded my mantle. I smell something distinctly dungish.
Jamat-ud-Dawa enjoyed a reputation for effective social activism even before the earthquake, with a wide and well-funded network of clinics and schools. It insists it has no militant agenda, although many point out that its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was once the leader of Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, a jihadi group that some Indian officials suspect for the recent serial blasts in the Indian Hindu city of Varanasi, where 14 died and 40 were injured Tuesday.
"There is no link between Lashkar-i-Tayyaba and Jamat-ud-Dawa, as some people think," says Jamat-ud-Dawa's spokesman, Yayha Mujahid. "This is a religious organization to preach, educate, and propagate Islamic teachings in the society."
--- I dunno.
Many analysts welcome the participation of these radical groups... "It's a process, it's a journey from extremism to liberalization to social welfare," says Arif Bahar, an analyst from Muzaffarabad. "If you are giving Hamas a margin in Palestine, why not Jamat-ud-Dawa in Kashmir?"
--- What the... a "process?" Who the hell is this "analyst?" Then the punch line; give them a chance like Hamas. Why the hell should I believe this cow manure? It's a "journey" to go from terror to social welfare. Oh sure, lots of murderers decide to give up killing for feeding the hungry, channeling their instincts from the mantle of militancy to social work. Cockeydoodle.
Iran's Top Leader: Nuclear Program Is 'Irreversible'
AP
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's supreme leader said Tuesday that Tehran's nuclear program was "irreversible" and warned that any retreat in the face of international pressure would "break the country's independence."...
In a nationally televised speech in northern Iran, [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad said "no power" can take nuclear technology away from Iran.
"Rest assured that the technology to produce nuclear fuel today is in the hands of the youth of this land, and no power can take it back from us," Ahmadinejad told the crowd of thousands, who chanted, "Nuclear energy is our right."
--- Ahmadinejad is very smart, which is scary. He knows how to talk to the West. Now it's a matter of "rights." Sure, as if anybody there has any rights. We have a right to enrich uranium that assuredly will be used for creating electricity! What makes you think we would want to blow up Israel? Or give it to Al-Qaeda? And the nuclear program is "irreversible," like communism is "inevitable"... I say assassination time. Forget this nation-building, just whack a few mullahs. The resistance is ready to move in, but they need help. Easy to say, I know. I really don't know what to do with these thugs.
March 10, 2006
Sunnis Turning Against Al-Qaida
AP
BAGHDAD -- Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaida fighters, their one-time allies....
"So far, we have cleared 75 percent of the province and forced al-Qaida terrorists to flee to nearby areas," said Osama al-Jadaan, a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members living along the border with Syria.
He claimed his people have captured hundreds of foreigner fighters and handed them to authorities. The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry, is designed to secure the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to prevent foreign fighters from crossing in.
--- "Secure the country's borders... to prevent foreign fighters from crossing in." I love to see those words in print.
March 8, 2006
Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain' Over Nuke Meeting
Fox News
VIENNA, Austria — The United States on Wednesday was threatened with "harm and pain" by Iran for its role in bringing the Islamic republic to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program.
--- Pardon me if I laugh *giggle* a little. They want to use nuclear energy to... make electricity? How dare the US object to that. For that they must die!! You guys started this goddamn war for civilization in 1979; we should have leveled your country then but we were busy with the Soviets. But we have nothing else to do now! Except, maybe, sic Dick Cheney on yo ass. Ok, well, that would be brutal. And we shouldn't really completely level the country. We'll just round up the leaders and drown them in a vat of their own oil, chanting Death to Iran!
March 7, 2006
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday said the proposed takeover of terminal operations at five U.S. ports by a Dubai company would give U.S. law enforcement a better handle on security at U.S. terminal operations.
But the unprecedented access that the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies would have to monitor the United Arab Emirates shipping company's personnel and business records would "evaporate" if Congress stopped the deal from proceeding, he warned.
--- I don't like the Dubai deal. We should be sealing borders and sealing ports, broadly speaking. I know there's a ton of stuff we're not being told... But it just stinks. You know that frickin' expression, if it walks like a duck... Besides, Chertoff looks like a sociology professor. You're a terrorist, and you see this seemingly incompetent professor-looking type in charge of United States Homeland Fucking Security; does he look threatening? He doesn't inspire me. At least Tom Ridge looked like a bulldog. Get this poodle out of here. And our securty will IMPROVE with this deal??? Who's buying that?
--- I missed this one.
Abbas says al Qaeda in Gaza
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 3, 2006
TEL AVIV -- Al Qaeda cells are operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published yesterday....
Mr. Abbas was quoted in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper el-Hayat as saying he had proof that al Qaeda cells had infiltrated the Palestinian territories and that he was "very concerned" about the development...
At a press conference yesterday with Israeli Labor Party leader Amir Peretz, Mr. Abbas said only that he was worried about the al Qaeda threat.
"We have unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda, since it sent its members to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, may also send its members to us for the purposes of sabotage," he said.
"Our forces are trying with all available means to prevent them from arriving to carry out terrorist acts in this region."
--- 1) al-Qaeda in the Palestinian territories!? Oh my Lord, is that possible? 2) Mr. Abbas is trying to prevent them from carrying out "terrorist acts in this region?" I hope he is as effective against al-Qaeda as he has been against Hamas!! Holy crap, better send him more money!
March 6, 2006
UNC Grad in Court on Alleged Hit and Run
AP
A University of North Carolina graduate from Iran, accused of running down nine people on campus to avenge the treatment of Muslims, said at a hearing Monday that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."
Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar was accused of driving a sport utility vehicle through The Pit, a popular campus gathering spot, injuring nine people Friday. None of the victims was seriously hurt.
Police Chief Derek Poarch said Taheri-azar told investigators he intentionally hit people to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."
--- This guy apparently is not connected with any frickin' terrorist group. We have to understand what makes a Muslim justify violence in order to defend his faith. No frickin' elitist know-nothing will get up and ask why. Maybe he was just unhinged. Maybe he wasn't. We have to lose our postmodern mindset to ask the right questions and find solutions.
Hamas Rejects Zawahiri's Support
AP
CAIRO, Egypt — Hamas officials shrugged off the support offered by Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, saying Sunday the Palestinian militant group has a different ideology than the terror network and won election through a moderate approach to Islam.
--- I didn't realize that Hamas is a bunch of moderates, did you? Do they use kinder, gentler bombs or something?
March 3, 2006
Bombing near U.S. Consulate kills 4
The Washington Post
KARACHI, Pakistan -- An apparent suicide car bomber drove into a vehicle outside the U.S. Consulate here Thursday, detonating a powerful blast that killed a U.S. diplomat and three other people and wounded at least 50. Officials said the bomb scattered wreckage several hundred feet and shattered windows in the consulate and a nearby luxury hotel.
---Am I the only one wondering why President Bush is going to Pakistan? Well, I kind of know the politics of it, but, why is he going to Pakistan? Is it worth risking his ass to be nice to Musharraf?